Charming and Dangerous
by InternationalChocolate
Summary: Jacelynn always saw her powers as something distinguished her from the rest of the crowd of individuals losing their way.With her images and her words that play with the mind, she could do anything without consequence. And she knew it went to her head. But when she ends up in a house of other mutants, she finds something she thought she'd lost forever; a family.
1. Chapter 1

It could be argued that stories have no definitive start until someone puts pen to paper and starts writing, choosing which is best for their own spin of the tale. As for myself, I'm simply just going to start with the place that is easiest for me; October 31st, almost sixteen years ago.

Jaqueline Dionnis and husband Markov Dionnis were talking quietly in the living room of their apartment, a small cozy atmosphere that looked like just about every other living room in the city. White walls, dark furniture, a tv and a bookcase standing alone in the corner. The floors were wood, the place was swept and uncluttered. It could have passed for just about anyone's house.

With the exception of a few odd secrets the Dionnis's would rather you didn't find out about. The topic of choice was the future and the undeniable trouble they had ahead of them.

"She's not going to be normal. There is no way, not with the powers coming from both sides of her family." she pointed out, stifling a yawn, stretching out sore muscles.

"It gives her an advantage. Death is a common factor in our line of work, she needs to be up on her feet as soon as possible. And if it isn't death it's..."

"A lifetime in jail." she finished, looking gravely at her husband. Suddenly she laughed coldly.

"Look at us talking about this and she doesn't even have a middle name yet."

"A middle name isn't going to matter in the long run. What is going to matter is how we approach this. If she's as smart as you, she'll pick up on this soon." he responds, reclining in his chair with a look of thought on his face.

"We can't just tell her outright though, lord knows the situation that would put us in if she was asked what we do for a living during school."

"I can see that. Damn, she is not going to have an easy life is she?"

"Life is not easy. Her's is just probably going to be a hell of a lot harder."

"Maybe, maybe we should pull back on the harder jobs, try to be there for her."

"And pass up jobs that could put her through college and buy her first house? No way. I was already out of the game for nine months , I'm not going to risk any more time. We put her in the right training, have backups, and if all else fails..."

"We give her up."

"I really, really shouldn't be saying this but I don't want her to end up away from us. We- we could make it as parents.

""Don't worry, we'll do just fine."

"I hope so darling. I hope so."

 **12 Years Later**

"Mom, I'm home!" she called, dropping her blue school bag down on the floor next to the door. Sliding her shoes off, she walked into the living room, where her mother was usually waiting for her, watching Tv or reading a book. She never really got her mother's love for reading, Jacelynn could barely even sit still, let alone sit still and focus on something.

"Mom?" she tried again louder, but there was no response. Sighing, Jacelynn decided to just lie down, her school day had been rather long and tedious, plus she had her martial arts, self defence and theatre after that. All she wanted to do was nap. She laid down on the couch, and shut her eyes...before getting up to grab a pillow. Setting the pillow down, she went and got a blanket. Curled up under the blanket, she yawned,and closed her eyes. Minutes later she found herself thirsty and got up again to get a can of Root Beer, a drink she was probably addicted to.

Jacelynn sat down on the couch again, before getting up andwalked over to the decorative mirror hanging on the wall, something had been bugging her at school and she had almost forgotten about it. The reflection she saw was a mirror image of her mother staring back. They had practically the same appearance; raven hair, pale skin, thin nose and strikingly bright violet eyes. The only thing she got from her father was his pointy, elf like ears. That moment, for one reason or another, Jacelynn decided she didn't like her eyebrows. Picturing a different style she concentrated hard, staring at her reflection in the mirror, and in seconds, her eyebrows had changed completely.

She had been able to do this for a little while now, and quickly picked up that not everyone was able too. She wasn't quite sure how she got it or even what happens to her old features. as they would come back if she lost concentration. So, she kept it a secret from everyone, including her parents, because she knew everyone else would think she was completely crazy. OR a freak.

Deciding she liked the look of her appearance, she walked back to the couch, having given up on her nap, and decided to just watch some television instead.

The second the tv switched on, it showed what seemed to be a crime show. It must have only just started, as they were showing the officers at the scene of the crime, being given information.

Jacelynn couldn't help but smile. Only a year ago did she find out what her parents did for a living; completing heists and occasionally stealing for higher up criminals. To their surprise, she had been perfectly fine with their job choice, as they had never once been caught. And secretly, Jacelynn thought it was the coolest thing ever, almost like having secret agents for parents.

But she knew it was illegal, and didn't like to think about the aftermath of her parents jobs. But the thrill of danger made her curious. She took after her mother, so that was to be expected, and with their combined traits, as told by hushed conversations she'd overheard, would let her flourish in their business.

Her parents had already been preparing her for a situation caused by their profession that would find its way to her. So for years she'd been acting and fighting. Just in the case she would need it. But even with all that it didn't stop them from fighting to keep her away from their lifestyle.

A box was under a loose floorboard in her room. She wanted to prepare like her parents had- ad. It was filled with things that might come to use in the future just in case. Just in case. Inside of the box, was a "costume" which was suitable clothing, supplies like smoke bombs, dart guns and a range of darts.

Then again, she doubted she would ever have the guts to willingly or not willingly pick up crime, in a month or two she'd probably look back and think she was insane for even thinking about joining, for lack of a better term, the dark side. She would probably choose a different career. A stunt double perhaps. Join the circus? Maybe even a career as an actress for adventure films where she'd do her stunts. All much nicer options, and only slightly less dangerous then resorting to crime like her parents.

By now she is really curious as to where her parents have gone. Normally they'd be here by now. _Maybe they got held up? Or they're hiding from the police. Business meeting? No, they would have known that and would have told me, wouldn't they?_  
Suddenly, the tv was switched from the show to a news report.

"We apologize for the interruption, but we have a warning to those watching this. There is a gun fight on division street under way, and would like anyone in that area to stay inside and lock your doors." the bald man says, his grey suit crisp against the light blue background. _Division street? That's not far from where I am now,_ she thought to herself.

"As of this moment there are six wounded and four dead. Police are attempting to control the situation. Once again, we encourage anyone in the area to take shelter and lock all doors. We'll be right back as soon as we have more information." he finishes, and the tv flashes, returning to the crime program from before.

A gun fight? That is horrible. Maybe that's why they were held up. Didn't want to get caught in the middle, she reasoned as she left the living room to lock the front door. I hope they didn't start it, if they did then they won't be home for dinner and we'll be moving. I wonder where? No, doesn't matter.

Knowing that they weren't going to be home for awhile, she grabbed a couple snacks, settling down on the couch, unwrapping a granola bar and flipping to the news channel. Other stories were playing out, but the updates came on every few minutes, death and injuries racking up, by now it was a known gang against other people. The strange thing was this group was from another town, what they wanted here was a mystery.

She was watching the newscaster avidly, when a loud ring sang through the air.

She jumped, racing over to grab the land line, reading the number before picking up.

"Mason?" she asked. Mason was a family friend, genius inventor who made gadgets for her parents after they saved his life, although they never told her the exact story.

"Jacelynn? Thank god they haven't gotten you yet. I'm coming over in a few minutes. Pack everything you can in that backpack your parents gave you for school." he says rapidly.

"W-what is going on?" she asks, worry and confusion seeping into her voice

."I'll explain when I get there. Hurry, pack. And lock the front door too!" he says, clicking off, a dull tone replacing where his voice was coming from.

She was silent. She couldn't move. Inside her mind, thoughts whirled in her head, spinning at a pace she couldn't keep up with. Trying to process the information.

She broke free of the trance,tossed the phone down and sprinted into her room, taking out the bag and pouring the contents out. She went for clothes, stuffing anything practical inside. She hesitated, but grabbed the box of supplies, rapidly putting in the weapons, clothes and ammo. Taking the bag, she ran back out into the hallway, dropping onto her knees, taking out the another floorboard and pressing some hidden buttons, revealing a small safe, filled with cash, debit cards and different identification and passports. Rifling through them, she grabbed the simplest looking and stuffed them in the bag. At the bottom of the safe was a pistol- one her father had taken as a prize from one of his jobs.

The cold black object trembled in her hands. She could kill someone with this. It was never far from her mind of the fact that she might be forced to flee from an impending danger, but those had always been with her parents. Now, now she had no clue where they were and it seemed like the world around her was dissolving into chaos.

Zipping up the backpack, she let the gun rest on the ground, young mind thinking critically as to whether she really needed it. A knock on the door sends her flying straight up.

On her toes, she crept foreword, not making a noise,subconsciously having picked up the gun. Against the door, her heart pounded in her ears. There was a small glass circle, letting someone look out, but not in. Peering out, she almost cried in relief.

Outside her door, was a short, tan man with dark hair and glasses,, his eyes scanning his area with precision, seemingly calculating every variable.

Next to her parents, this was the face she knew and saw the most. Slipping the gun back into her bag, she opened the door, almost running into Mason's arms.

"Thank the lord you are okay. We need to go and pick up your parents. come on, and stay quiet." he said, rushing down the hall, Jacelynn hot on his heels.

"What is going on?" she asked.  
His response was a shooshing noise. They raced down the flights the of stairs and out the front doors.

Mason's blue car was parked as hastily and close as he could get it. A key comes out from his pocket, and with a push of the button, the lights came on. Jacelynn slammed herself into the passenger side, and the car pulled out before she even had a chance to get her seatbelt on.

"Mason, what is going on?" she asks, confusion and fear creeping into her voice with every word.

He shook his head, eyes trained on the road. "Your parents have gotten into some trouble. If we don't leave, it could hurt all of us." she couldn't tell if his voice was angry, sad or fearful.

"Where will we go?" she asked quietly, wondering if she should have brought more things.

"I don't know. But somewhere far from here, possibly leaving the country if it comes to it. But we can't go anywhere without your parents." he mumbles, pulling a hard turn to the right.

She could hear yelling a this point, and see the helicopters frantically flying through the air. Her heart sank- this was from the earlier news report, meaning her parents had to be involved.

He parks in the shadows of a side street, not too far from the action, but just enough that they wouldn't fall to any stray bullets.

Leaning over, he pushes against the side of the bottom of the door, it opens to reveal a shotgun, not quite as decorative as the one she had stashed in her bag.

"Stay here, and try to stay down. I'll be back with your parents as soon as I can." He whispered, sliding out of the car and locking it. Running down the street , along the wall. He moved around the corner, the shadows covering him, going around the corner.

And just like that, she was alone.

My mind was racing, thoughts piling up on top of each other running laps. I can't even stop one long enough to figure out what it is.

Every movement seemed to be a threat. She jumped at every little noise. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach.

She heard it before she saw it. Rocketing into the sky was the ashes of the explosion. Right where the fight was. Where Mason was. Where her parents were.

She bit her tongue to keep from screaming. The yells made all the way to her. Helicopters circled franticly to get a look at the damage.

Bringing her knees up to her chest, she was hoping, praying to anyone one or thing up there that would listen, to see all three of them come running up to the car.

Minutes go by.

She counted the seconds.

More minutes go by.

She stared at her open palms, not quite sure what she was feeling, and could later only describe it as hollow.

Continuing minutes.

Her hands look dry.

And there, she saw movement. Her head snaps up, peering closely at the corner, where she saw movement. Striding quickly, hunched over, Mason walked toward her.

She smiled in eagerness as she waited for her parents to follow him. But then she saw his posture, his eyes red, and the emotion plastered all of his face.

The smile fell.

That was when she knew.


	2. Chapter 2

She was terrified, upset and angry all at once, and it lasted, for a long period of time. But she never cried.

She was too focused on revenge.

Mason had decided to that Jacelynn should move in with him, seeing it as his responsibility to take care of her. He gave her a spare room, made a risky trip to get the rest of her and her parents stuff from the apartment, space for her to grieve. And most importantly, even if he wasn't aware of it, he'd given her opportunity.

He was a genius. Inventor, scientist, hacker. Hidden away in a "closet", he had a supercomputer, home to a massive information database. Hers for the taking.

So when he went out, she slipped down to it, getting as much information about that night as possible. It was relatively easy, he had been searching himself, and eventually, after many hours of staring at the bright screen of endless information, she got a name. Not quite a name of a person, but a group. The Dragons.

Newspapers, radio stations, local internet sites from the area, gossip circles, no one could stop talking about the explosion, even though time slipped on. Nothing ever happened in the town, they said, its a warehouse town, why would anyone have an interest in foreign groceries and clothes they asked, why would an explosion happen here?

But that was the thing, there must be something hidden that draws such an organization to be rooted here. But secrets such as this were hidden for a reason, and computers couldn't give you everything you needed. For that, you had to get out onto the field.

It was the summer when she felt, after hours of daylight exploration and synthetic 3-d maps, confident enough to head out and start her mission.

She knew the answer if she went as herself. As Jacelynn. A cold, hard, no. But she didn't have to be Jacelynn. She could be anyone.

So there she spent an afternoon, on the floor in front of a tall mirror, trying to decide who, exactly, she was going to present to Mason and to the rest of the dark underworld.

And slowly, the picture formed in her mind. He was average, a bland face, he was the every man in the crowd. His only distinguishable feature being the dark red eyes. The word she came up with to describe her powers, a glamour, went up.

His name was Daemon Cruise. He was a quiet, brooding type and he had a game plan.

He was ready.

Mason was going out on a "business venture." the first night she was planning on taking Daemon out.

Jacket pulled tight around him, he had a backpack slung over his shoulders, and in the shadows he looked years younger then he really was. Pulling open the door, she sat on the couch, "watching" tv as he prepared to leave.

"Now, I'll be back in the morning, you know the drill." he said, in response as she mock saluted him. "Just don't invite too many boys over, alright?" he asks, a mischievous grin on his face. Jacelynn made a face, and he laughed. "Get stuck." She replied, sticking my tongue out, using the local slang that had been circulating the area for what seems like forever.

With a final laugh, he closed the door, locking it behind him. Waiting for about ten minutes, she stretched, moving fast to my room, where she hastily pulled on a leather jacket, slipping in weapons in secret pockets hidden in the clothing she chose. She pulled out work boots that added to my height from under my bed, and slide it on.

Taking a dark blue messenger bag, she slid in the cans of spray paint she'd need for her calling card, an empty box, tape and a self-made map of the warehousing part of town, which showed which warehouse was controlled by who and what was in their, leaving the rest of the space for the stuff she was going to take.

Feeling ready, she opened her window, sliding out onto the ledge, and jumping onto the fire escape. Racing upwards, Jacelynn went for the top of the building. Poor planning led to the buildings being built close enough for me to travel by jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Getting a running start, she made the first leap of the night, landing safely in the shadows cast by the jutting bit of building where the stairs up must be located.

Taking the opportunity, she threw up her glamour, the one she'd practised in for a week. She was gone, existing only in the back of the mind, as She was replaced with 20 year old Daemon Cruise, ready for action.

The journey was swift and easy, she had an even easier time then she did. Approaching the destination faster then he anticipated, her feet stopped abruptly, pulling out the map she made , highlighting the warehouses she could stop into. She chose the one straight ahead of him, inside it held crates and crates of stuffed animals, only these animals were stuffed with thousands of dollars worth of cash.

Peering down, the warehouse wasn't as tall as the building he was on currently, so it would be quite a jump. Folding up the map and sticking it back into the bag latching it closed, she turned and paced backwards. Giving herself one count of a breath, she raced off the side, and suddenly there was nothing beneath her, adrenaline pumping through her veins, we are feeling the same thing. Freedom. And excitement.

Her feet slam onto the hard roof, stinging from the impact. Wasting no time, she goes to the edge, using the ladder to climb down. The side door was nestled behind a large trash compact, less used then the main doors at the front.

Pulling out a bobby pin from her hair, she kneeled down, carefully twisting the pin inside the lock, hoping to hear the faithful click that would let her in.

The door creaked open. She was in.

It was dark, but the boxes apparently were a different colour then the others, a pure white. From the inside of her coat she pulled out a small flashlight, flicking it on and walking around, dusting the light on every crate.

She paused at the white crates, looking for the one with the brand that supposedly sold stuffed animals. It was the smallest crate of the white ones, neatly labelled and innocent looking.

Digging into a pocket, she pulled out a knife, stuffing it into the crack between the lid and prying upward. Surprisingly, the lid came off quite easily. Sheathing the knife and setting the flashlight down, she took the lid off, resting it on top of another crate.

Pastel coloured bears filled the crate to the top, she assumed that there was about 20. A light blue one she picked up to inspect, appeared to be normal. I frowned, could I have been misinformed? The knife went back out, and in the dim light she had, sliced it open.

Out fell a large stack of money.

Jackpot.

Half an hour later, her bag held bears with money, while the rest of the money had been sliced to pieces, resting inside the box, beneath the rainbow of discarded bears, resting in halves. On the lid, she left the tag he thought up. A devil's tail wrapped around a sword, sticking out in bold red against black.

Already moving from roof to roof, the moon is high, shining down on the shadowy streets of town. She was less then halfway when I stopped my motion, stopping at the side of the building, a straight drop less then a step away from him.

This part was going to be tricky. There was no convenient ladder, and the fire escape didn't come all the way to the roof. Poor building planning aside, she had to make the drop, which, if she missed, which wouldn't be all that hard, she'd smash onto the pavement. She just hoped the rickety old stairs wouldn't make a noise, or collapse under her feet.

Before she went down, she pulled two of the bears out of the bag, as well as the box and tape. Fingers flying, she stuck the bears ( and more importantly the money inside the box. The light blue one bore the mark of Daemon. Taping it together, the box went back into the bag. And it was the drop next. She allowed herself one deep breath, before taking the half step needed and plummet.

She messed up. She hit the fire escape, but unfortunately, her left arm hit the wall on the way down. Badly.

Grinding her teeth together, she moves it stiffly testing to see if it was broken. It moved, albeit painfully, and that was good enough for her. Moving quickly, she descended two steps by two steps.

Looming across the street was an old building that used to be an apartment, no longer in use according to the general public. They were waiting to see when the rich owner would finally knock it down and rebuild.

But there were residents. The criminal kind.

It was simple, leave the package, and then get out of there. As fast as possible.

But she stopped. Just to scan the building with the most loathing and disgusted look she could. Tossing the package to the ground in front of the doors, she raced down the street, up the closest full fire escape, and continued her leaps from roof to roof.

It was the first time, and it certainly wasn't the last.

She spent what seemed like forever on working spontaneously chosen nights, dropping off packages at that same doorstep. Spending hours researching their moves, motives and the like. Building and building upon a fiery hatred that burned deep inside of her.

School started, but she barely noticed, leading to her grades slipping. Her friends grew distant from her. She didn't care about anything unless it affected her expeditions out.

Of course, she kept up an image, so no one got suspicious. If the school decided to call Mason, he'd be on alert, making her work that much harder. So she chatted and smiled and occasionally put effort into her homework. Started dating a boy or two, which all ended horribly, in an explosion of fighting arguing and hatred. Not because there was anything wrong with them, just that she was having a bad day and wanted to take it out on someone and maybe it made her feel a bit better to see someone reduced to yelling and irrational hatred and revenge. What Jacelynn was doing was just that, on a larger scale, with slightly more rule breaking involved.

Her paranoia was growing, every move was calculated more then before, and each slip up left her waiting with baited breath for someone to call her out on it.

It was then the decent down really started to show itself, but back then she still had thoughts for consequence, and her morals were somewhat intact. For example, after a few months, evading and lying to Mason was eating her alive. Lying to others, fine. But he had done so much for her, he deserved the truth. She made up her mind.

There was Chinese take out for supper that night, the night she chose to reveal it, because as Mason often said "Geniuses don't cook.". The sun was already slipping from the sky, falling beyond the table for two, hastily put between the "Kitchen" which was a refrigerator, a cabinet and trash can and the "Living room" which was a couch, bookshelf and a tv on the opposite side of the room.

It took a minute to get the words together in a coherent line. I was nervous. It could make or break everything, and she didn't like being nervous. I had always been confident and forward, I had been in theatre for years at that point. But now all of tat seemed to dissolve inside of me as I set down the fork.

"Mason," she started, and he looked up from his food, a questioning expression on his face.

"I've been doing some research, some digging. I know who did it."His eyebrows furrowed, he knew exactly what "it" stands for.

"I've been going, I know the area like the back of my hand now. I want there attention. So I -"

"No." he interrupted, a stone cold look meeting my gaze.

"Please, I-"

"That is insane. Your twelve, this is the grief speaking, its too dangerous for you. I know you want revenge."

"Need," I said quietly, "Need revenge."

"But they'd crush a kid your age out there. I won't allow it."

"But they wouldn't know it." I respond, take a breath, and showed Daemon. His jaw went slack, the fork clattering on his plate. The familiar, safe feeling overwhelmed her. It was just like every time she went out. "I'm Daemon Cruise. And I am the one behind the warehouse break ins."

The rage , something like memories, and the ever present curiosity burned in his eyes. "That was you?"

"Yes. I've been dropping off parts of stolen goods at there front door. I know I have it. I'm so close. Don't you want something done? You can't risk it, but I can."

"I really don't want you to do this." He sighed, rubbing his temples.

"I can give you part of the stuff I get. Let me do this, any compromise you want. Please Mason." Jacelynn was pleading now, and her glamour washed off as she wasn't paying attention, focused on swaying him to her side.

"This is a horrible idea. But if I say no, your just going to go behind my back and pull even more crazy stunts." And money. He also saw easy money in this. As much as he cared about me, the lure of cash would always win in the end. While it wasn't the greatest quality in a guardian, or even a person, it was working to her advantage sighed." I suppose I have to say yes." I nearly cheered.

"But. But you have to follow some terms. And if you don't follow them, I assure that I will find out, you get shipped off to nearest preppy all girls boarding school I can find. Do I make myself clear?" She nodded eagerly, keen to hear what the restrictions were. She did not want to end up at a stuffy, be a lady, boarding school.

Mason listed a couple of obvious rules, put her own safety above getting away, and getting away from retrieving the goods if the cops or others showed up. Contact him if she got in a situation. Don't kill anyone. Never show anyone what she could do.

At that she asked why.

He rubbed his temples, sighing and not speaking for a moment. "There are people, out there, who like to keep their idea of normal in tact. They would do a lot to keep it that way. And the whole thing of people with powers wouldn't go over very well with them, and most likely, end violently. Its a lot safer for people like you and your parents to hide it."

She snap her head up, eyes widening and her jaw drops. Her mind can't quite process the last sentences. "Were they, my parents- were they like me? Could they do what I do?"

"More or less. Both of them had gifts. Your father could create lightning and electricity, while your mother could become a literal shadow. But you inherited the gene from them that gives you your gift." he explains. "I'm afraid I don't know much more then that, I've tried doing research, but with limited resources and few opportunities, not much has come up." He had the look on his face of confusion, curiosity and frustration that always showed up when he didn't have a chance to figure out how something worked.

"How come they never told me?" She felt a twinge of betrayal, thoughts flying around in her head, this was something that could have put all of us in a lot of danger, and they choose not to tell me? Especially when its a part of me and my heritage.

That was when she realised those thoughts could have applied to her parents not telling her about their work, and she had seen some sense in that, so she wouldn't comment about it.

"Okay, how about after supper, we work out some plans for the future? Make sure we minimise risk and danger as much as possible. Sound good?" He asked her. She nodded, taking a bite out of her food, a piece of her glowing with pride and happiness that she actually got him to work with her.

Two more weeks had passed, and three successful missions had followed. No reports on the news, and she knew that her explorations were unkown to the public.

Only once or twice had thoughts of consequences and morales of this crossed her mind, but the thrill of danger and the lure of revenge kept her from fully realising how dumb she was being. Not with the strategy or planning, not the idea, but her urge to go along with it. She slipped down the slop just a little bit more.

And just a little more. The slope was slippery. And more. She was nearing the cliff into nothingness. She was fighting with Mason over bits and parts of her plans, even on regular things. Another slide downward.

When the letter had been slipped from under the door as she set down the package, she had been overjoyed. Excited beyond belief. This was it. She officially had a meeting with the leader of the dragons, apparently having proved her allegiance. She would tell Mason and he would give the tony gadget that would send a virus to their technology, starting a fire when it finished. It would ruin them, and she would be gone without a trace.

Jacelynn would finally be free to live her life. She would be able to... She frowned. What would she do? She'd been doing this for a year now. Barely remembering what exactly she did before she started this.

It didn't matter right now, she consoled herself. She would figure that out after she actually completed it.

The start to the night couldn't have gone worse. She didn't know what happened, but she really fought with Mason. It was a blur, but she knew she said things she should not have sad, and Mason responded with cruel words. Ending with snarled words agreeing that she would leave after she finished.

"Why don't you tell me the godamn truth for once?" She yelled at him, having gone back on his word on what his plans were, originally they were going to move across the town, but now he had planned for Pennsylvania, in the middle of nowhere. Her words had a powerful echoing tone.

His face contorted, spilling his guts in the form of the words he didn't tell her. He was shocked. "Another power? And you say I hide things from you?" She was surprised too, but kept retorting his anger with hers. They fought like children.

He glared at her the entire time, a non-stop lens of anger, even as he grabbed the device from a drawer and stuffed it into her hands, having explained how to use it sometime beforehand.

Later she would wonder why they ended so badly. It was mostly her fault, having driven herself into the mission, beginning to play the part of the villian more then she should have becoming much more snarky ,"cruel" in a way, and others feelings no longer were a priority. Did she notice? Not realyy. Would she have cared to change? Probably not. Revenge was all that mattered.

Roof to roof, it was the same learned pattern, this time with a heavier messenger bag, having her original box of stuff in it. Going faster without the extra bulk, the Dragon's building loomed before her, tall in the shadowy grey clouds cast in the sky around this city. It looked as if they were going to have a thunder storm.

There was someone waiting for her as she dropped from the fire escape.

"Daemon. We have been waiting for you." Greeted the man, looming tall and dark, hidden partially by the shadows around him. She nodded in response, entering the building.

It was grand and elegant in a way for a criminal headquarters. Tall walls, arches, and a grand staircase that lead up. Their were others there as well , making their way down the hall past the stairs or filing up. She assumed the tall man was her guide, and followed him as he led her the entire way up the stairs, past floor after floor of the dark building. The final floor only had a single door on it. Nerves starting to fly, she followed quietly as they entered the room.

It was a rather well lit office, expensive looking furniture in every corner, a bookcase against the cream yellow wall, and a middle aged man sitting at the wooden desk. This was not what she was expecting. Especially the apparent leader.

He wasn't all that menacing looking. While not very tall, he had some muscle, wrinkles on his forehead and straight brown hair pulled back, already showing grey at the roots.

"Daemon Cruise I believe. What a pleasure to meet you. I've been noticing your work, it's quite well done." Like he was an artist talking to a fellow painter.

"Thank you."

"I've been wanting to talk to you about a position at our wonderful, ah, company."

"And what kind of position would that be?"

" You excel in the retrieval of objects, and we are in dire need of people who can cleanly get in and out without causing a scene, plus you seem to know your way around the city. But don;t worry, if you kill them quietly and dump them in the harbour, we won't make a fuss about it." He winked at her, smiling as if it was a joke. Jacelynn felt sick to her stomach.

"I'll keep that in mind."

He opens the top drawer of his desk, pulling out a stack of money, stretching out the elastic band as far it would go. "This would be for your first few jobs. If we like what you do, we keep you on."

Flipping through the green bills of 50's and 100's, she knew that this would definitely cover her start of a new life, wherever that was going to be. "This seems good. Do you have my first mission now or am I starting at a later date?"

"Of course we do." He opened the draw, picking out a folded piece of paper and sliding it across the desk. "I expect it done by the end of the week."

The mission was simple enough, but of course, she would never have to do it, she doubted that the Dragons would have recovered from the massive property damage and corruption by the end of the week.

"Done."

"Well, that is all I needed from you. Although, since your one of the dragons now, you'll need to start signing our calling card on certain missions, and as a tattoo if you feel bold. A red piece of fabric would suffice if you would be to cowardly to get one. But from seeing your previous excursions, I doubt this will be the case." A subtle way of saying your getting a tattoo.

She nodded, rising from her chair. "I will be seeing you soon?"

He smiled. "Count on it." he started, sweeping his arm to the still guard she had almost forgot about. " Zach here will escort you out.

In one fluid movement, she unzipped one of her deeper pockets, taking the tiny device out with her finger where neither could notice it, stretching her free hand out to pick up her money and paper, the other planting the device on the under corner of the desk, starting the 10 minute timer. Unless he tried to move it, then it would start as he did so, the genetically engineered fire spreading like, wildfire.

She walked out the door, her escort following swiftly behind without looking back. As they started down the flights of stairs, Jacelynn began the mental countdown in her head.

It was beginning to get dangerously close as she passed through the doors and walked down the street, trying not to got too fast to arouse the guard's suspicion. The thunder was already going, sounding like massive drums against what would have otherwise been a quiet street. She could barely hear herself think.

As soon as she rounded the scorner, she ran for it, running as fast as she could, until she found a bike, stealing and switching to that, making it to the far outskirts of the city by the time the time dawn was beginning to break, but that was the late or earlyness of when she set out. Jacelynn ignored the unusalness of a crime boss, even if in a small scale city, meeting her in person, he had taken her old life but given her everything she needed to start a new one. And she hopefully ruined him in response

The sky was dark, pitchblack it seemed as the thunder rolled. She thought she might have heard firetrucks in the distance, which meant she caused enough commotion to get the public on them.

Smiling to herself, she let the glamour fall, revealing her ordinary, almost 14 self in the mirror of the home decor shop she stopped infront of.

And she stopped. She didn't see herself. She saw her mother.

Jacelynn thought she would no longer feel grief after getting revenge. But something inside of her hurt when the familiar violet eyes and dark hair was reversed back on her. She closed her eyes, and felt a few tears slide down her cheek. No, she told herself, you haven't cried so far, you won't start crying now. But she didn't want to see it. It hurt her chest to even picture having to watch herself grow into her mother's appearance.

But she didn't have too.

Throwing on a simple glamour, she peeked at the mirror. Her hair was a dark brown, her eyes blue, and the shape of her lips was fuller. She looked different.

This was the face of the new Jacelynn. The one that would carefully examine employees, masquerade as them when they left for 10 minutes from her "persuasion" and steal the money from the cash register. Who would jump from city, barely keeping up on any of her school except for learning other languages as that was useful to her. Keeping up this life for months, until a woman caught her in the act. Who didn't report her to the police, but offered help, guidance and a new life, as long as Jacelynn would do a few things for her. She even told her to charmspeak ( her term for her power over words) the truth out of her, giving her the same exact answer.

It was too tempting to resist, though the woman who gave her name as Mystique, said explicitly that she wouldn't be the good guy. That was fine, not like she ever was.

She bounced around with her for a few more months, occasionally getting to extract information from some apparently important person, and celebrating her 15th birthday by finding a cd of music she liked and a note on what her mission was on that week's kitchen. She took it as a rare bout of kindness and a bribe, gladly excepting both. But that was until they finally stopped in Bayville, getting a boarding house, and Mystique disguised as a Principal. That meant Jacelynn would be attending that same school, and unfortunately Mystigue took to plugging her ears with something to avoid her commands to keep up the relaxed homeschooling.

But no, she got stuck at Bayville High, a school that seemed to operate on sports and gossip. It quieted down for a bit, until Mystique suddenly decided to drop in another unfortunate smelling mutant, forming a brotherhood so creatively named "The Brotherhood.". Even though it was formed by a woman and half of it was a girl, the other being a frog-like alien in the mold of a teen boy. (That was her personal theory, she obviously didn't share it with anyone.)

It was at this point the story really starts to pick up, and life get more complicated then a teenaged girl with powers living a secret double life should be.

 **Hello! What did you think of this chapter? I'm sorry I took so long and this is late, I probably should have realized I wouldn't have been able to get it done in two weeks. So from this moment on, their won't be a set schedule, but rather I'll update roughly every 2 and a half weeks. And if I don't feel free to spam me until I get it done.**

 **Also, the ending is a bit rushed and I'm not extremely happy with it, so I'll probably be editing it in the future.**

 **Soa yeah! Sorry again everyone, and a quick shout out to Alphenawolf for reviewing. That's all! See you next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

The alien's name was Todd, so she learned. Todd Tolansky. A mutant with toad-like powers, and, like her, a knack for pickpocketing. But that was roughly where the similarities ended.

They weren't really friends at that point, but they were far from hating each other's guts. She would occasionally pull him out of a situation and he would do the chores she was assigned when she didn't want to, willingly. Jacelynn wasn't all that sure if Mystique really cared if they got done, but she had seen her mad and wasn't willing to find out.

And nothing really happened those first weeks. It was a cycle of school, homework, tutoring to make up for the year she missed and the year where she hardly payed any attention. In hindsight could it have killed her to take some notes?

The day would start with Jacelynn being up hours before Todd, as not only was he not a morning person in the slightest, she was a light sleeper and even the smallest of noises would wake her, and could not fall back asleep.

The whole house had an older feel to it, and while it was quaint, she went for the room that she felt it was easiest to make modern. She had already taken a can of paint to the once dreary beige to a black, taking to splatter painting one wall with vibrant colours. It was an odd choice, but she wanted to stand out as different, a sort of idea she wanted to establish if she was going to be staying here for a while. She wanted her living space to reflect that.

She would waste away the remaining hours doing nothing of importance, until she decided it was a semi-reasonable time to head down for breakfast.

Jacelynn would throw on the glamour she had memorized by heart, the one she used when she wasn't engaging in tv-show worthy missions. And head down the stairs to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal, sitting on the counter as the sun rose higher into the sky. Around then Todd would hop down the stairs, mumble an unintelligible greeting, and head out the back door for his breakfast. Finishing up she stashed the dishes haphazardly in the sink and went upstairs to her room to get some clothes for the day. Originally she hadn't brought all that much, so she had been steadily expanding it. She would change quickly, today was a long blue shirt and white leggings, as by now they were running five or ten minutes late.

She'd brush her hair, rush some eyeliner and start hastily putting her stuff in her bag. With the option, Jacelynn wouldn't be rushing, not giving a crap if she was late, but she really didn't want to miss the bus as it was a long walk to school, and skipping entirely would be too much explaining, and at that time in the morning she wouldn't be bothered to put the effort in. The day might turn out to be interesting, and on rare occasions, fun. Easier to leave halfway through the day when it was obvious nothing was happening.

She would race down to the bus stop with about a minute to spare. Todd would usually miss it and find some other way to school or give up and spend the day terrorizing insects if it was Monday.

And then it was the regular, 7 hour, four periods and lunch of not paying attention, charming students and "convincing" teachers to not give her whatever assignment she didn't feel like doing, with an ear to the ground for any interesting bit of gossip or news. It fascinated her, just how hooked on gossip the entire school was, as though it was the blood pumping the beating heart.

And without fail, there would always be something about the boarding kids. She found out quite a bit about the Xavier kids, even if most of it wasn't true. The stories all rung the same, including the fantastical stories of special privileges they got, which only grew as the added days when they got to be excused from school.

At lunch she would usually sit by herself or with Todd on the days he was there, at a certain table she claimed as her own. She would sometimes stick around to start some rumors as other people about other people so she could see what would happen but normally she would leave right after, spending the afternoon on whims, going where the wind carried her, back in time for dinner, and waiting the rest of the evening out for the pattern to start over again.

That was roughly how it went for months, the same mix of super powered teens and average schoolwork until midterms started up, adding to both.

With the addition of Lance, the Brotherhood rose to an astounding number of 3 members. And really, for an evil villain team, he was the perfect fit. Tall, strong, and favouring torn clothing and confrontations, he was the picture of a delinquent in the minds of paranoid parents everywhere, who, in Jacelynn's mind, was actually a pretty cool dude.

Lance was pretty friendly, and they had a couple of things in common, like movies, making fun of those "reality stars" and music, something that as of recently, she'd been finding out she really enjoyed, as she never really sought after it unless it was for a part.

A part. __Huh.__ When was the last time she auditioned for anything like that? She couldn't remember. It was probably that one Alice and Wonderland play. Her parents had been- she stopped her train of thought there, a feeling of grief and sadness washing over her. Stop, she chided herself, wallowing in the past isn't going to make, make them come back.

 _That doesn't mean you can't grieve._ A little voice in her head whispered back.

She told the voice to shut up. The less reminders, the better.

Lance figured out the schedule pretty quickly, mostly because Todd and Jacelynn would gripe and groan every time he messed up.

"No, Lance we can't go over there to eat lunch-we have our table over there," she would say.

"Who cares where we eat our lunch?" Lance would question.

"We do. It's important." She would respond.

"Why?"

"Because it's part of the schedule." Todd would remind him.

"Enough with this damned schedule! Why do you like it so much?" Lance would ask, shaking his head in disbelief, reluctantly walking over to the table.

"Because it annoys you." she would say, smiling sweetly.

Lance would end the conversation with some variation of a string of curses, his favorite being "Fucking hate you two." Jacelynn and Todd would snicker for a few minutes afterwards, and that would be that.

…

Rogue, Anna Marie, was sitting in the kitchen when Jacelynn first met her.

Jacelynn had already glamoured her appearance. Having done it so much it was simply second nature. She trudged down the stairs and into the kitchen, blinking sleep from her eyes, muttered a good morning to the person sitting at the table, and went over to the fridge.

Then she realized that since it was before dawn, neither of her roommates, especially Todd, would be up yet.

Turning to the newcomer, who was in fact a girl, she spoke. "Who the fuck are you? How and when did you get in here?"

"My name is Anna Marie, or Rogue. I got here last night, and Mrs. Darkholme let me live here. I'm going to Bayville starting today." she responded in a pronounced southern drawl, not phased at all by her.

She raised an eyebrow, but it was to early in the morning to pry, and decided to jsut go along with it."Well, I'm Jacelynn. The other guys who live here, Todd and Lance, won't be up for at least two more hours. They're a special kind of people, so it'll take some getting used too. And I hope you don't have a strong sense of smell, because Todd has only showered once in the time I have known him."

Rogue made a face, and Jacelynn laughed. She might grow to like this girl.

…

The next lucky person to join the group of teens was Fred Dukes, a teen from Texas, whose first appearance at school made everyone's day more interesting.

"What do you think of the new guy?" Jacelynn asked Todd, leaning against the wall outside the school, waiting for Lance to park his jeep, which took a lot longer than one would think, as he just had to be certain no damage would come to it. That was another benefit of his arrival, no more noisy buses that hadn't been cleaned for weeks.

"Who, Fred?" he questioned.

"No, Rogue, who is actually a feminine-looking dude, that we've already talked about. Yes, him, he's kind of hard to miss." she said, as Lance walked up to them. Rogue had went ahead, as while she tolerated Jacelynn, had yet to grow to like any of the boys.

"He definitely got the go big or go home part of Texas down." Todd joked. She laughed a little at that.

"Knock it off you two. He's part of the team now, and if we're living with him now, you shouldn't be joking about him behind his back." Lance said, as they entered the building, hallways lively with activity as everyone was getting to their lockers and classes before the bell rang.

"But that is how we show friendship and affection. Insults and sarcasm and jokes!" she complained.

"Well yeah, but not right now. He's obviously got some issues, and Bayville High isn't known for being the most inclusive and kind high school around." Lance said. It was true, the current reign of popular teens weren't the nicest people, excepting the perfect Jean Grey, who really rubbed Jacelynn the wrong way. And the gossip circle was ruthless, as she knew, being the person who knew every little bit of information that was circling at that moment.

She _really_ needed a hobby.

"You're right man. I don't want to anger that dude, he might eat me!" Todd exclaimed. Jacelynn put her hand over her mouth, trying to muffle the sputtering laughter that was coming out of her. This was why she hung out with Todd.

Lance shook his head, looking exasperated, but there was a trace of a smile on his face. "That is exactly what you shouldn't say around him. So stop it, okay?"

He had a point. "Fine, fine. You win. C'mon Todd, let's go to class. We can see if Mr. Nice Guy is still around by lunch."

"Where _is_ my book?" she mumbled to herself, rifling through the stuff in her locker.

Maybe she stuffed it in Lance's bag by accident. She hadn't been paying attention that morning.

Moving quickly, she went to Lance's locker, where luckily he was located, leaning against the locker, head turned in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Lance. Did you see my book in your bag?" she asked.

There was no response.

She took a couple of steps closer, and spoke louder. "Have you seen my book?"

Still no response.

She moved so she was standing next to him, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Earth to Lance?"

Nothing.

He was staring at something, something that was making him smile slightly. She followed his gaze down the hall, which led her sight to-.

"Her?" she was astounded. Jacelynn connected the dots easily, but it seemed too absurd to make sense. "Kitty Pryde?" she hissed.

That was enough to snap him out of it. "What?"

She put her hand on her forehead, shaking her head. "I can't believe it. You like Kitty Pryde!"

Lance went red. "Would you keep it down?" he whispered.

"I'm not sure if I should laugh or be disgusted. Isn't she fourteen?"

"Actually, she is almost fifteen."

"So she is fourteen."

"It doesn't matter."

"But- why?"

"Because. She's just, you know…"

"You don't know, do you?"

"I- why am I trying to explain myself to you?"

"This is just sad." Something about this conversation, or the situation, made her want to burst out laughing.

"Oh- go away." His face was heated up.

She shrugged, and started walking down the hallway. When she passed Kitty and her group of geeks, she couldn't help but try to picture what a relationship between those two would look like. And goddamit, she burst out laughing. The Xshits looked at her oddly, and she put her finger up to say something, but just kept laughing. It was the funniest thing. Jacelynn raced down the hall, laughing the entire way down, forgetting about her book completely.

…

"Did you really get stuck with Sunglasses for Drama?" Jacelynn asked Rogue, picking away at her salad.

"Yeah, and he certainly isn't too happy about it," she moped.

They sat at the regular table, something Rogue picked up on a lot faster than Lance, as Todd and Jacelynn liked to remind him.

"So? Think of the opportunities. Tamper with the script. Trip him up. Do something to bring down his mark."

Rogue gave her a weird look. "And why would I do that?"

"Because he- oh never mind." she sighed, digging her fork into her salad. It was the exact same kind her mom used to always- No. Stop. Not now.

"Anyway, any of you guys see the locker get ripped off the wall?" Jacelynn asked.

Lance nodded. "Yeah, I did. Freaked a bunch of people out." He had his eyes closed with his hands behind his head, leaning back like he was trying to sleep.

"You bet. And I think I know who did it." Todd said, eyeing the teen. He had already eaten his fill of insects that day.

"Really Todd? I didn't think it was that obvious. Personally, I was suspecting Miss. Gloom-and-Doom over here. She can get really riled up, you know?" She responded, voice dripping with sarcasm.

The resident goth scoffed as she continued eating.

"Please. Rogue? I was surprised she could lift her tray." Todd shook his head.

Rogue scowled, more than her average scowl, and chucked a cup at Todd. He yelped, ducking down, narrowly avoiding the flying projectile. Rogue got her tray and walked off in a huff.

"Good job, Todd." Lance sighed.

"Thank you?"

It was just then a loud thud was heard, and suddenly food was flying through the air, landing on Duncan Matthews and his friends. That was such a wonderful thing to see, as she wasn't all that fond of Duncan Matthews, seeing him as a hotheaded idiot with a tendency to hit on her.

She covered her mouth and laughed. Duncan and his burly friends started walking menacingly over to Fred, who was on the ground in front of a tipped table, food everywhere.

He tried to get up but slipped, and laughter ricocheted around the room. This set the large boy off. He yelled, taking a glob of food and chucking it at Duncan with enough force to knock him down onto his back. Then Fred was chucking food everywhere, not caring who he was targeting.

As teenaged logic goes when provided with an opportunity like this, someone yelled "foodfight!" And all hell broke loose.

Just for the heck of it, Jacelynn launched some food over to the Xshits, before halfheartedly sending a tomato from her salad sailing towards Todd.

"Oh, you're asking for it, dawgette!" cried Todd, whipping food at her.

She shrieked, diving underneath the table, crawling out and hiding behind Lance's sitting form. "Save me!" she yelled, laughing as she did.

Lance shook his head, took a moment to send some grey looking mush towards Summers, before taking off, Jacelynn hot on his heels.

It wasn't until the late evening that the two newest recruits showed up at the boarding house. When asked where they were, neither said anything, and walked up to their rooms.

Jacelynn charmspoke the truth out of Fred the morning afterwards. In hindsight, it might have been best not to know.

Jacelynn sat on top of the counter, nose in her textbook, trying to figure what the heck it was talking about. They had progressed into algebra, and she just couldn't understand any of it. It had been 2 years since she was introduced to algebra, but she wasn't paying attention at all that year, busy with her "project" ( she refused to call it anything else inside her head, it brought up too many bad thoughts otherwise) and the year after she was on her own or doing stuff for Mystique.

First of all, she had a problem with letters even being in math. Words and letters belonged in English, and numbers belonged in math. There should be no crossing of the two. The second was the concept. It was so confusing, how could she find the answer if there was a letter replacing one of the numbers?

She tried to puzzle it out, but it simply wasn't happening. Giving up, she shut the textbook and put her head in her hands. Why did math have to be so confusing?

"Having trouble?" questioned Lance.

"No, not at all. I just don't like the looks of the next units we are covering, they all look long and boring." Jacelynn said, hoping he didn't pick up on the lie. Math wasn't supposed to be this hard, not for any of the other students at least. She could work it out herself.

"That is what school specializes in." he commented as the door to Mystique's office pulled open.

"Come in. We have plenty to discuss." Her tone was brisk and strict as she walked back to her desk while the teens filed in.

The five of them took a seat, facing the permanent frowning principal. "Now, we need to discuss some things regarding the future, specifically regarding your gifts of being mutants." she began

"From this day forward, we are doubling down on training, strict times, harder drills. We need you in the best shape you can be in, because we are in the middle of planning something that can change the fate of the world." Mystique never specified who the "we" was when she referred to them. Jacelynn had a foggy idea, involving a powerful mutant, but wasn't sure.

"Following that, during the summer you'll be attending a survival camp for a few weeks." There were loud groans that followed that statement, "And I will hear no complaints about it. Towards the end of the summer, our final preparations should be underway, and you will be filled in on our plans. Any questions?" she finishes in a tone that suggests that there should not be any questions.

Jacelynn hadn't noticed until the following morning that the X-men had a new member, a teen named Evan Daniels. This surprised most of her teammates.

"How can you not notice? They parade themselves around in their group all day!" Todd asked, hopping down the hallway next to her.

"Yeah, we were just talking about this. Did you just go deaf for ten minutes?" Lance agreed.

"I wasn't paying attention, because unlike some people in my immediate company, I don't obsess over them!" Jacelynn responded, folding her arms in front of her chest.

That was met with immediate sputtering and cries of no, vague excuses and curses in tow.

"I simply speak the truth." She told the two of them. "And don't worry, I'm pretty sure Rogue is in the same boat." The girl had done a stellar job of making obvious her growing crush on Sunglasses.

"I want to keep tabs on our enemies, figure them out before they figure out us. Y'know?" Lance said, trying to defend himself.

"Enemies? We haven't fought them once. I don't think they're our enemies." she noted.

"They might not be yours, but they are ours." Lance responded.

"And does this include Kitty Pryde?" she asked innocently.

He scowled at her, pushing her sideways as she laughed.

"Wait, what is this about Kitty?" Todd asked.

"Nothing." Lance basically growled, speeding up his pace and walked away from them.

Todd turned to her. "Well?"

She smiled. "It may or may not go a little something like this."

…

When Mystique said they were going to double down on training, she really meant it. It was various exercises, mock fights and different trials using their powers to do something.

It was painful, hard, and put Jacelynn at a severe disadvantage because her mutant gifts weren't combat-related ones. However, they got through the two hours, sore and bruised but in one piece.

"That was the worst three hours of my life." Todd groaned as the teens finally walked back into the boarding house.

Jacelynn flopped onto the couch. "My entire body hurts." she groaned.

"Complaining won't make it better." commented Rogue, sitting down and putting her face in her hands.

"Yes it will. Complaining makes everything better." she mumbled.

Fred went in to the kitchen. "Anyone want water?"

They all raised their voices in response, having not stopped for a water break for hours. If this was karma coming back to get her for something, she sorely apologized for whatever she did, courtesy of her aching muscles.

"Well, you are going to have to get used to it, we have the same thing again tomorrow." Lance reminded us, stretching his right arm in front of him.

Everyone groaned. "Don't remind us man!" Todd cried. "I'm not gonna be alive at the end of the week!"

"What a tragedy." Rogue commented dryly, southern accent drawling as she spoke.

The door was opened with a loud slam in the middle of the conversation, something crashed in the kitchen which meant that Fred probably broke one of the glasses.

A vexed Mystique walked with urgent strides through the door and into the living room, where they sat draped against the various furniture.

Taking a side glance at Mystique, Todd mumbled something about helping Fred clean up, and wisely hopped past her.

You could tell the woman was thinking about something, something that definitely involved the teens, as she took in each of them in a sweeping look. "We are going to have a new member." she announced.

Side looks of questioning was shared among the teens. "Yay?" Jacelynn spoke out, the exclamation turned more into a question.

"Is the house clean? I need this place to be spotless!" Mystique continued, being vague on the why and the who.

"Yeah, it's decent." remarked Lance. "What's the big deal?"

"Because I want to-" Mystique stopped herself, like she was about to admit something she shouldn't comment on.

The door slammed open once again, this time letting a gust of wind into the house, stopping right next to Mystique, in the form of a tall, lean, silver haired teenager with an arrogant smirk on his face, as if he didn't even need to know you, he still knew he was better then you.

"This is the newest member of the brotherhood," introduced Mystique, and disappeared out of the room, like she didn't want to even be in the same room as them.

"The name's Pietro. I guess you guys are the losers I've been told about." The newcomer said, looking at the worn-out others.

Jacelynn smiled falsely. "You bet. And you're one of us now, but I'm sure you were already one before, too."

"Please, I think I'm here to show you people how you are supposed to be."

"And what would that be?"

"Cool, charming and awesome. And while you could never be me, you can try."

Jacelynn raised her eyebrows at that last remark. Mentally, her thoughts were dripping with sarcasm, because, oh, how she was going to like this Pietro.


	4. Chapter 4

Why, out of all the able students who attended Bayville High, had Principal Darkholme decided it would be a good idea for Jacelynn to show Pietro around the school? It might be because Mystique expected her to explain the point of the Brotherhood (even though she wasn't even sure there was a point just yet) or other Mutant-related double-life things. Maybe, since she wasn't aware of this happening for any of the other members, the silver-haired teen might have a connection to the "we" in so many of Mystiques statements. It was worth looking into.

But Jacelynn decided to ignore those logical backings to the motive of her election for this job. It was so much easier to complain in her head when it seemed like there was no reason for her to be doing it.

It was the middle of first period (the only benefit to doing this was missing class), leaving the two teens alone in the halls. Jacelynn, glamoured as her usual self, talked about the wonders of Bayville High.

"And if you look to the left, you'll see bluish-grey lockers. Many fights have broken out over whether these lockers are more blue or more grey. It provides evidence for the theory that Bayville High students don't have a lot to do. If you look up, you'll notice the hospital-style lighting. You'll notice that the light burns your eyes, and you'll cease to notice any imperfections, due to the fact your eyes are burning and you can't see anything. Any questions so far about this riveting school tour?" she stopped to breath, having kept up her nonstop tour guide impersonation for the past few minutes.

"Yeah, when does this end?" Pietro asked, folding his arms in front of his chest. "I haven't been this bored for years."

"Boring is all this tour can be when boring is the best adjective to describe this school. Average people, average achievements, an average IQ low enough to be annoying but not low enough for people to be entertainingly stupid. Unless you like sports, prepare for the most average and boring years of your life," she remarked, as she opened the doors to the cafeteria.

"And this is the cafeteria, as you can see. All of the tables are home to gum wads on the bottom, so don't try to avoid them. The food is in the far corner. It's decent but the lunch lady is downright cruel. It is quite the impressive site and will give historians a good look at the boring lives of teens due to all of the carved expletives in the walls and tables."

The teen beside her swept a gaze across the room, making a face of disgust. "Are the school colours bleak white and ugly grey?"

"Unfortunately no, although they could very well be and they would be a much welcome improvement. We got stuck with piss yellow and the most unflattering shade of red I have ever seen in my life."

"I am not going to wear that when I make the basketball team." He commented, seeming secure that he was going to make the team, even though he had started here today.

"That's not going to be a problem then, considering you're _not_ on the basketball team," she commented, heading away from the cafeteria to the outdoor fields.

"Not yet. But I will be, I'm the best player I know, so don't worry your pretty little head about it."

Jacelynn frowned at that last comment. "For one thing, I don't know what that last comment implies, but I assure you if you use it again it will backfire on you. And for another, I don't think there are any positions open, not since that Daniels kid came in earlier in the week."

Pietro bristled as soon as the name came out of her mouth. "Evan Daniels. Your team must really suck if they let him in."

She raised an eyebrow as they went out onto the field. "You know him?"

"I've known him for a couple of years. He's insufferable, annoying, and acts humble, but he takes the credit for all of my accomplishments and gets the spotlight for everything," he groaned.

"So he basically took the attention from you that you may or may not have deserved in the first place?" she asked, summing up as best as she could.

"YES!" He kicked the ground, not fully understanding what she had said.

"Does this mean you're going to boycott the team?"

"No, I'm going to be on the team, and I'm going to show everyone the loser that he is."

"Then I suppose you'll fit right in with the others. Daniels is one of Xavier's new recruits. There's nothing the others love to hate more than the X-shits." She used the term Lance had come up with while ranting one night fondly now since it annoyed them quite a bit. While she certainly didn't hate the group to the extent the others seemed to, they definitely annoyed her with the goody two-shoes-ness, not-doing-anything-that-could-potentially-hurt-someone's-precious-feelings, you're-evil-or-you're-good attitude they often put out.

Motioning for him to follow her, Jacelynn led Pietro back through a separate door, leading into a hall of classrooms. "And that concludes the building layout tour. Any questions?"

"It's finally over?" he exclaimed, looking relieved.

"Yes, and believe me, I'm happy too. I'm going to go get my stuff from my locker for science, so if you need directions ask me now. My class is right there so if you happen to forget where the world's most colourful cafeteria is, wait here." She gestured to the door at the end of the hall.

"I think I'll be fine. Takes an idiot to get lost in a place like this."

"I realize that. That's why I'm asking you."

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"Someone who uses incredibly lame comebacks," she snorts. "If there isn't anything you need from me, I'll be going now. See you at lunch."

…

"You've got to be kidding me." Jacelynn dropped her books on the desk with a thud, putting a palm to her forehead.

"You don't know how lucky you are to be sitting with the amazing Pietro. There are plenty of girls who would kill to be in your shoes, 'Lynn. Can I call you 'Lynn?" he flashed a smirk, gesturing to the seat next to him, the seat that she had claimed at the start of the year, closest to the right wall in the middle row. Going to the back made it obvious you weren't going to pay attention, as would the windows.

"No." she said flatly, dropping into her seat.

"Aw, you don't seem too excited about this class 'Lynn. Aren't you eager to learn about equations?"

"Equations are math. This is science, idiot."

"Well, whatever. But do try to keep your staring at me to a minimum, wouldn't want to distract you too much from your learning."

"Then the least you can do is promise you won't start worshipping your reflection in the test tubes.' she responded, flipping open her textbook.

"So you admit I'm handsome?"

"No, but you seem like the kind of person who likes to pretend they are, and since no one else thinks it, you've got to complement your vanity yourself."

"You don't hold back, do you?"

"Why would I? There's no fun in that," she responded, smiling insincerely as the teacher walked through the door to the science lab, shrugging on a lab coat, and sitting at the front of the classroom.

"Touche, 'Lynn, touche." The two turned to the front, conversation halting as the teacher began the lesson.

…..

"Would you look at this, Lance? Pietro didn't question the fact that we have a table we sit at every day without fail. He gets the schedule and it's his first day here. How crazy is that?" Jacelynn commented, setting her tray down between Lance and Todd and sliding in.

"What is it with you people and your damned schedule?" Lance growled.

"It's not just a schedule. It's a way of life," Todd quipped.

"It's actually kinda helpful for keeping me on track," added on Fred, taking another handful of fries.

"Let's me know when I should get away from you losers," snorted Rogue, looking up from another one of her books.

"It's not that hard to follow, dude," Pietro jumped in before plowing into his mass of food.

"I hate the lot of you." Lance shook his head, seemingly giving up.

"You're the one that's being difficult. You could just accept the schedule and we'd be able get on with our lives," Jacelynn suggested.

"And let you win? Not happening," he replied.

"Suit yourself. But as long as you don't give in to the schedule, we're not going to leave it alone," she said, digging into her own lunch.

"Wonderful."

….

"Jacelynn, it seems that you haven't handed in yesterday's homework. Am I mistaken?" her teacher, who seemed to enjoy grilling failing students in front of the class, stood at the corner of her desk. Math was never going to be enjoyable for her, and her teacher certainly wasn't helping her to fall in love.

"Nope." She didn't even look up at the teacher, continuing to lazily doodle in a notebook.

"And why would that be?"

"'Cause I didn't do it, so unless you want to grade a blank piece of paper, I don't have anything for you."

"Jacelynn, I will not tolerate that sort of sass in-" Jacelynn put up a hand, continuing to keep her eyes trained on her pen.

The teachers face contorted, eyebrows furrowing together, "Jacelynn?"

"I don't think you quite understand, but when someone puts their hand up as you talk, it means they want you to shut the hell up. So why don't you do everyone a favour and move along so other people who strangely care about what you teach can get that, ok?" Her last sentence was laced with an undertone of demands no one picked up on except her succumbing target.

Like a machine, the teacher rotated and made her way up to the front of the room, picking up a textbook and beginning her hour-long drone about numbers. Jacelynn's peers muttered amongst themselves. It wasn't every day you saw a student ordering around a teacher (even though it was a regular thing she did, not many people picked up on it). But honestly, she couldn't care less at the moment. It was Friday and she was ready to go home.

Todd, sitting at the desk to the left of her, leaned over. "Yo, I didn't do mine either. Do ya mind doing the fancy word thing for me too?"

Mocking surprise, she whispered back, "Why Todd, I would never condone such a thing like that. I'm a big believer in education," and with an exaggerated stage wink, she returned to her drawings.

…..

"Blob, man, you gotta help me!"

"Toad, get back here! You've got some explaining to do!"

One thing Jacelynn had been noticing as of recently was that the louder and more angry Rogue got, the more pronounced her southern drawl got. And how infinitely more annoying with every syllable she yelled.

Grinding her teeth, she tried to get back into the Dracula book, or more accurately, the script of one of the more well-known play versions.

"What's going on?"

"Rogue's gone ballistic, man! She's tryna kill me!"

"You deserve it!"

Lance, who had previously been quietly lounging in a chair and channel surfacing, put a hand to his forehead, groaning quietly. Jacelynn doubted it had anything to do with the frequent migraines he suffered as a result of his powers.

A gust of wind could be heard next, flying down the flight of stairs and into the kitchen.

"What's all this noise about? I was trying to do important things."

"Like what, doing your hair?"

"Even perfection such as myself needs a touch up every once in a while. And besides, if you'd look in the mirror, you'd realize you desperately need one. Or five."

"Can we get back to the point, please? Fred, stop shielding Toad and get out of my way!"

"Sorry Rogue, not happening. Why are you mad anyway?"

"Because there's slime all over my room!"

"It wasn't me, I swear!"

"Who else could it be?"

"I don't think you're helping him, Pietro."

"Who says I wanted to help him, Blob?"

"Can I at least get an explanation?"

"Ok, so I was hungry, and there was this big juicy bug flying around upstairs. So I tried to slime it, but I missed, and it flew away, and it might have gone into your room. And I went in and I tried to get it but I kept missing, but lucky for you, I got it eventually!"

"How was any of that, in any way, lucky for me?"

"I got rid of the bug for you."

In defeat, Jacelynn closed the book and dropped it into her lap. Leaning over the arm of the couch, she whispered, "You know, if we get out of here, we'd have an alibi for when they break something and Mystique finds out."

Lance laughed quietly, rolling his eyes, just as an aggravated yell followed by a scream and a crash was heard, the distinct shattering of a vase. Eyes widening, he sat up straight. "Let's go. In the jeep." He leaped out of his chair, and without hesitating, Jacelynn quickly followed.

The two of them had become close over the past few weeks, but most of the time when they hung out, it was generally in the living room, both doing something to occupy time and keep the gaps in conversation less awkward.

But sitting in the front of a car, with no clue where they were going, and no books or homework or TV to distract them, it was quite apparent. It felt strange, to be honest, having so much space behind her, when normally the 6 teens were crammed into a 5 person car.

"Where are we going?" was the first thing she thought of.

"I honestly don't know. I just found a road and started driving."

She smiled a bit at that, and with no other words coming out, they lapsed back into the silence. This was honestly not like her.

"Have any place you'd want to go? I don't want to head back so soon and I'd rather not use all the gas driving aimlessly."

She hummed, wracking her mind for any interesting places. "How about the theatre?"

"Be cool, but neither of us have any money, and you have to pay for parking in the area."

"We can just park further down and walk the rest of the way, and besides, you're forgetting who you're dealing with. When you're with me, money's not a problem." she winked, laughing quietly.

"If that's the case, I'm surprised you're not the most popular person in school."

"I don't give just anyone free fun. I've gotta get something out of the deal too. That and I'd probably get some questions if I do it too often."

"You charmtalk the teachers to not give you homework all the time. I didn't think you cared if anyone saw." Lance slowed down, pulling over to the side of the street, one that led straight into the heart of Bayville.

"Charmspeak. Generally, I don't, but most people just brush it off or forget. I haven't had anyone stop me in the halls over it so I'm fine for now." Taking off her seatbelt, she leaped over the door, landing feet first on the pavement. "What about you? Have you ever had any close calls with someone finding out about your powers?

"Nah, not really. Well, unless you count the time I destroyed my school."

"I still don't believe you actually did that."

"It was all over the news! Freak earthquake causes a high school to collapse. That has to ring a bell." He said, using his hands to emphasis his point. She shook her head.

"C'mon, how else would Mystique have scouted me out?"

"She got the rest of us without front-page-worthy news stories. I'm guessing she just approached you when you were hijacking a car or something."

"Well, how'd she scout you out?"

"I bounced around cities for a while, so I think she followed me for a bit. Who knows how long though? She actually approached me when I was posing as a jewelry store employee, you know, one of those really fancy places that sell a single ring for thousands and thousands of dollars, and taking jewelry out of the cases."

"Why not just take cash from the cash register? Wouldn't that be easier then pawning of stolen goods?"

"Yeah, but how often am I gonna be able to have in my possession ten thousand dollars' worth of jewelry? How could a girl resist?" She smiled and laughed breathily. Not like she was able to do those kinds of things constantly. She was liberal with her powers, not stupid. Do it too much and someone, especially the wrong kind of someone, could easily notice, even if having the extra cash could keep her afloat for weeks at a time. Most of the time it had been old-fashioned pickpocketing. Or going hungry.

"I don't get the point of jewelry. Why is it so important to girls? It's all they ever talk about, jewelry and clothes and make-up and celebrities." He pulled a face as he listed them off.

"Like dudes talk about so much more interesting things. Cars, shoes, sports and how manly they are compared to others."

"There's more substance to what we talk about."

"Enlighten me then, how do cars have more substance conversationally then clothes?"

He didn't respond immediately and the theatre was in sight when he responded. "I don't know, they just do."

"Wow, excellent argument. You've proven your point to me. I can't think of any way to refute that." Sarcasm dripped off the words as she spoke them.

"Can we just say that guys and girls are equally both vapid and stupid?" he suggested.

"Agreed." she responded. "You know, if guys care about shoes so much, why do you wear those?" Jacelynn gestures to his feet.

"My shoes? What's wrong with my shoes?" Lance glanced down, seemingly baffled.

"Everything. Everything is wrong with those godforsaken shoes," she deadpanned, opening the door to the theatre.

"My shoes are fine."

"No they're not. They're ugly and make your feet look like cinder blocks."

"Who cares what my feet look like?" They shuffled into the back of the line to the ticket counter, the noisy inside only slightly quieter than that of the streets.

"You should care. Those shoes are atrocious."

"They're just shoes. They're fine."

"No they're not, Lance. Those shoes existing are the reason I no longer believe in a god."

"You're religous?"

"Not anymore!"

He started laughing, and she couldn't help but laugh as well. "Ok, how about we actually pick what we are going to watch?"

"Hmm," Jacelynn scanned the showtimes that would happen in the next half hour. "How about Haunted?"

"Isn't that the cheesy-looking horror movie that came out last week?"

"Oh yeah. It'll be an interesting watch."

The attendant called loudly for the next people in line to come up. Moving forward, a very bored and annoyed looking person greeted them.

"Two tickets to the 7:00 show of Haunted."

"Uh-huh, that'll be-"

"Actually," Jacelynn intercepted, smiling brightly, "you seem pretty bored. So let's spice things up a little."

The attendant grunted, but seemed to give her more attention than before.

She drew in a breath, and spoke, words laced with power. "How about you give us the tickets for free. Isn't that a nice idea?"

Like clockwork, the attendant, seemingly in a daze, proceeded to hand them what she asked for.

"And you're not going to think this strange at all. Got it?"

A slow nod was her response. She smiled, satisfied. "Let's get some free popcorn."

...

"On a scale of terrible to so-bad-it's-good, what do you think this movie is going to end up being?"

They were seated towards the back of the theatre, previews flashing across the large screen as the last movie goers found their seats.

"Uh, I'll bet it will be a solid awful. You?" Lance responded, taking a handful of popcorn from the shared bag.

"I'm hoping it'll be a so-bad-it's-good. And will you stop eating all the popcorn? The movie hasn't even started yet."

"We have a giant bag, we'll be fine."

"For the record, I wanted to get us both a bag, but no, we're already scamming the theatre out of, like, 30 bucks. Let's not push it." She rolled her eyes, leaning back in the chair, her eyes catching the sight of a familiar blonde jock in the seats behind them. He wasn't alone.

As discreetly as she could, Jacelynn tried to identify the girl sitting next to him. She was a dark-skinned brunette, ruling out the possibility of her being his actual girlfriend. Beyond that, she had no clue who she was, certainly no one she'd ever seen at Bayville High.

"Don't look now, but Duncan's behind us with some chick."

"So?"

"Some chick that's not his girlfriend."

"And why do I care?"

"Because in the past, Duncan was notorious for cheating in almost all of his relationships. This is interesting."

"Still don't care. Besides, how do you know they aren't just hanging out as friends? You know, like we're doing right now."

"I just do."

"If this is your attempt to get the rumor mill going that you've been complaining about being so slow?"

"Ok, for one, I am not that dependent on petty high school drama for amusement, and secondly, it's been churning so slow that people have been talking about your argument with Scott, and you argue over the same stuff almost every week!"

"I didn't know I was popular enough to be talked about."

"Don't let it get to your head, because you're not."

"Well, whatever, the movie's starting."

About halfway into the absolutely disastrous film, Jacelynn picked up on a quiet noise, something that certainly was not a part of the film. Discreetly, she took a glance behind her. Trying their best to keep quiet, Mystery girl and Duncan were passionately making out. Raising an eyebrow, she turned back to the screen, where a blonde teen was more than likely about to be killed by the ghost haunting the house. What was Jean going to think about this?

Well, nothing, because it wasn't likely Duncan was going to tell her anything about this and no one else seemed to have noticed.

She certainly wasn't a fan of the red-head, but having this knowledge, it seemed especially cruel to not say anything since Jean at the very least deserved to know her boyfriend was cheating on her. If she saw Jean on Monday, she could probably pull her aside and talk to her. Besides, how anyone could make out during the funniest horror movie she'd ever had the pleasure of watching astounded her.

 **Hello! Long time no see. Yeah, certainly not anticipating that last gap between chapters. I'd love to say I'll have chapter 5 up soon, but I honestly can't promise anything. This month is Nanowrimo though, so I might be able to get the next one up faster, or not at all. We'll see. Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

"Good morning, Fred. You are certainly up early." commented Jacelynn, as she moved to the fridge, and poured herself a glass of orange juice.

The first rays of sunlight for the day broke through the window of the kitchen, as Fred stood in front of one of the counters, stirring something in a dark green bowl. "Morning Jacelynn."

"What are you doing?" she questioned, propping herself up so she was sitting on the counter crossed legged.

" Making pancakes for everyone."

She perks up immediately at hearing the word pancakes. "Really? Thanks Fred." Jacelynn hadn't had homemade pancakes, or pancakes in general, in forever.

And then it happened.

Out of the blue, her mind sent her back in time, in all of one second, mentally she was no longer in the present. In a modern looking kitchen, a young Jacelynn sits on the marble island counter, watching her mother make pancakes, one of the rare occasions she had time to prepare breakfast. It had to have been on a weekend. Her mother turns and smiles, asking if she wanted to actually help instead of just watching her. She holds out her arms in response, and the blue mixing bowl is passed to her. She holds it with one hand and moves the wooden spoon in choppy circles, while her mother keeps a carefully trained eye on her.

Jacelynn bites down on her lip, trying to shake the memory out of her head. Stop, I don't want to deal with this. She looks around for something, anything, to keep her grounded and not to go down this dark hole of memories. Her breathing got shallower and quicker, as her mind fought with itself to not start feeling those emotions she buried those years ago. Why now? She didn't feel herself slipping and she didn't linger on her parents and-.

"Jacelynn, uh, your glamour thingy is acting weird."

"My what?" She's barely paying attention to him, her mind focused on this mental war. Every though, every nook and cranny in her head was focused on not slipping and _not_ doing this _not_ now.

"Your eyes are going purple."

The minute he said purple she jumped into action, grabbing a discarded spoon to look at her warped appearance. Sure enough, her "normal" blue eyes were flickering between that hue and her original, inhumanly bright violet eyes. She inhaled sharply, noticing that her dark brown hair had strands going black. She felt her glamour slipping away, reverting back to the person she didn't want to see.

She folded in on herself, her hands covering her eyes as she fought to regain control. Deep breaths, she told herself. Just picture what you want, and it will happen, she recited, a practiced phrase she used when learning her powers.

Her heartbeat slowed, and she could feel the light weight of the glamour settle back onto her, before fading. Taking a peek at the same spoon, she sighed, her normal appearance back. Everything was fine.

"Are you ok?" Fred asked slowly, she brought her best stage smile up and responded in some of her best acting in years.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just a little hiccup in my glamour. No problem. Think I'm gonna get changed and come back down for breakfast." She got up and left the kitchen,as fast as she could not bothering to care whether he thought it seemed suspicious, her mind finally calming down.

That was terrifying. She never, ever loses control like that. And yet it just happened, over what? Fred's pancakes?That was all it took to go back to-to those memories? Pathetic.

For the most part, Jacelynn had been able to get on with her day. Everything was fine during her first two periods, and Fred hadn't said anything but given her curious glances throughout the day. All she had to do was focus on the bland schoolwork so she wouldn't slip up again, pushing the event of the morning to the far corner of her mind. Just get through the day, she told herself.

By lunch, she felt she had succeeded up until that point, daring to think a crappy day was turning into a decent one. She had just stuffed her science books into her locker when she caught sight of Jean by her own locker down the hall. Jacelynn had nearly forgotten about her resolve from the weekend. Might aswell tell her now, she decided, since there none of the other Xshits around. She locked her locker and walked over to the redhead.

The redhead was looking for something in her criminally neat and organized locker when she approached. "Hey Jean, you got a minute?" she questioned.

"Um, sure. What do you need? "

"I'm not usually one to approach someone about these things, but I figured I'd make an exception. On Saturday I was at the cinema, and your boyfriend happened to be there with another girl. And they made-out during the entire movie. Honestly it was quite annoying but-"

"No."

"Pardon?" Jacelynn questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"You're mistaken. Duncan wouldn't cheat on me, he's not that kind of guy, no matter what Sco- anyone thinks." Jean replied.

"Hard to be mistaken when I saw it with my own eyes. "

Jean closed her locker forcefully. "Listen, I don't know why you think it'd be funny to try and trick me like this, but its not."

"Trick?"

"Oh, don't act surprised. This is exactly something you would do!"

"Do? For the love of God Jean, I'm trying to be nice-"

"Nice?" she laughed sharply. "That's a good one."

Jacelynn folded her arms in front of her chest, taking deep breaths, attempting to keep her voice cool. "Care to explain what's so funny?"

"People like you can't be nice, you can fake it all you want, but being nice isn't part of your dna."

"People like me?" Jacelynn's tone was getting dangerous, very calm, but you could audibly hear the anger beneath it.

"Yes, people like you and your group. Delinquents. Hot-headed, idiots who can't stay out a fight for more than 5 minutes! You people are constantly stirring up trouble with other people because you're jealous. Jealous of the fact that people actually like them and especially what they have and the fact that they'e had good lives unlike your own!" Jean recoiled, the angry expression fading fast from her face as she slapped a hand over mouth, her mind just catching up to what she had actually just said.

Even though near-instant regret was dawning on her face, what she said came in loud and clear for Jacelynn, and to her, she meant it. "Oh, so we're just all terrible, troublemaking delinquents because we don't live in mansions? You're deluded, we're not all just fucking walking stereotypes! Because let me assure you, your friends are no better than us at points. But no, they're good, kind angels because they live in the lap of luxury? What makes you think that I'm jealous of you? I'm not, because you're delusional. You seem to think the world is black and white, which really means you need to get a grip on reality."

Jacelynn shook her head. "You're a real bitch, you that Jean? Last time I ever try to help you." And with that last remark, she stalked down the hallway, mind reeling.

Any inkling of a thought of that day turning out decent evaporated from Jacelynn's mind as she walked outside to cool off. She had meant to spend the rest of lunch by herself, wandering aimlessly, but she spotted a familiar figure sitting under a tree.

"I'm surprised you're not burning up in the sunlight." was her way of greeting, plopping down across the grass from her housemate.

"What do you want?" snapped Rogue, closing her book.

She raised her hands. "Nothing, honestly. Just to talk. No need to get so defensive."

"Defensive is all I do." deadpanned the other girl, and Jacelynn laughed.

That seemed be enough to get Rogue to bring her guard down a little and smile. "So, where are the others?"

"Oh, no clue. Pietro said something about basketball during science, so he's definitely at the court. Fred probably tagged along since he has a tendency to. Lance might be sitting in his jeep listening to music. Todd hasn't been in class at all today, so I have no idea where he is." she listed off, counting on her fingers. "But that's just my best guess."

"You seem to know them pretty well." commented the other girl.

She shrugged. "I know them yeah, we're all friends and we do all live together. Most of its just because they're easy people to read."

"That how you knew where I was?"

"Well, you do sit under this tree every day, so yeah."

"Not many other places to sit without people everywhere being… people."

"Very descriptive, I completely understand and empathize."

"I don't expect you to empathize. You're not a social outcast."

Jacelynn shook her head. "Oh, how naive. My dear Rogue, the social ladder isn't nearly that straight forward."

The southerner huffed. " How exactly can the idea of people like one person, people don't this other person be complicated?"

"But you don't see the interconnected strings! The people at the top aren't universally loved, the people at the bottom aren't necessarily the dregs of society. The top of the pyramid simply started life with the right cards, often times the people at the bottom aren't putting themselves out there in the right way! And the pyramid isn't so divided, everyone's got some link to someone else. Either by scandal or situation, location or ties. It's more of a web than a pyramid really, and at the heart are the people with the best cards and the best connections. You just have to open your eyes to see it all. " sher hands waved through the air for added emphasis, the things she'd come to figure out coming out as concisely as she could make them.

"You've put too much thought into this."

"Yeah, yeah, I've got no life. Not like there's much interesting going on in this town besides. So us youths resort to what little we can cling to. Whether it be designer drugs, meaningless sports affiliations, or in my case, the viscously addicting highschool gossip circle."

Rogue snorted. "You should be in drama, you got a better knack for it than I do."

"I was actually, but it didn't fit into my timetable at all, so I couldn't take it this year." she shrugged.

"Your lucky, drama kinda sucks. I just want to do my work and get out. Which is especially hard with Scott in drama. I just can not do my work when he's there!" she throws her hands up in the air. A second goes by and her eyes widen, her cheeks burning. " Uh, b-because he's so annoying. Yeah, ha-ha. So stupid."

"Uh, sure. Whatever you say Rogue." Jacelynn got up from the ground, brushing grass of of her legs. "Well, I should get going. Lunch is probably going to end in a few minutes. See ya around Rogue!"

She heard a muffled reply, and started walking away. Just as she was rounding the corner, it sounded like there was a crash somewhere behind her. No, she had to be imaging things, she told herself, and kept walking.

"I honestly thought the last bell was never going to ring." she ran a hand through her dark brown hair, her comments more talking to herself then the guys walking in front of her. "I am so ready to go home."

Just after she said that, she spotted a very angry looking Scott scouring at the three of them, even with his sunglasses on, she knew he was glaring at them.

"What are you looking at Summers?"

"Where's Kurt?" Kurts gone missing? Wonder if that has anything to do with Todd being M.I.A all day she mused.

Fred barked out a laugh. "Like we'd tell you."

Jacelynn folded her arms in front of her chest, smiling coyly. "Yeah, where's the fun in that?"

Their words had to have set him off, because before any of them had a chance to blink Scott lunged out,slamming Lance against the lockers. "I said, where is he?"

"Get off of me!"

Scott's anger seemed to be growing by the second. "What have you done with him?!"

ta

There was a crowd forming at that point, people who had been getting ready to leave pulled over the loud yelling, eager to watch what was about to go down.

"Get lost slim!" Fred picked him up by the collar like he was nothing, dangling him in mid air.

"Put him down!" Jean snapped, Jacelynn moved in front of her.

"Shut it red, because I would love a good reason to knock you out, and I suggest you don't give me one." Jacelynn threatened, scowling at the other teen. The lockers around them were beginning to shake, and she was sure that Lance was one push away from bringing the roof down on them. The telepaths hands went out, preparing her powers, Jacelynn slipped into a fighting pose and a crowd was beginning to form around them, chanting Fight over and over again

They were a second from getting into a real fight, powers and all, when a voice shouted over the chaos. "What is going on here?" The crowd parted and stalked forward.

"We weren't doing anything, but Summers started yelling and basically attacked Lance for no reason!" she didn't bother to use any charmspeak, because one, to Mystique any reason to get the Xaviers kids in trouble was a good one, and two, aside from some goading on their side, it was basically what happened.

Summers started a rebuttal, but Mystique didn't care to hear it, telling them to follow her to her office. She smiled at their backs. "Now that is how to make a bad day decent!"

"If she's not at the school, then you'll be heading downtown to search for her. I would take your gear, just in case." Mystique's told her, having turned to her last. Rogue was supposed to do some private information training, something about giving her a more in depth detail of the xmen for her powers or something. That was supposed to be an hour ago, and when we told her we hadn't seen her at all that evening, she went into panic mode.

Of course, for Mystique, panic mode involved yelling incredibly detailed courses of action to complete to the very last detail until it's solved. Jacelynn had gotten used to this, a couple almost failures had familiarized her with this part of Mystique very well.

But freaking out this much over Rogue not being here was definitely a little odd. Incredibly out of character, if Jacelynn was being honest. Normally, Mystique didn't give a rats ass about them. Not unless they were being incredibly stupid, her personal property was in harms way, or they were jeopradizing the-

Oh. Now that was an interesting thought. Rogue hadn't been assigned a mission, not to her knowledge, and generally Mystique kept her in the loop, more so than any of her fellow brotherhood members, and her loyalty to Mystique was never questioned. This means that there is more of a longterm goal with Rogue, and she had a feeling that it was connected to Mystique's boss.

Whenever that topic came up, Mystique always gave cryptic answers or simply "If you needed to know, I'd tell you. Stop asking questions." depending on what kind of mood she was in. Jacelynn had tried to do some digging in the past, but nothing ever came out of it.

Everyone dispersed, and she decided to go up to her room and pull out her gear. She kept it in the back of her tiny closet, so unless someone went determinedly rifling through, they wouldn't see it.

It hadn't seen use in awhile now, not since before Todd joined the ranks. She'd been missing the action as of recently, life was so boring without it. The gear she had basically used from the start was made from a strong but breathable material, giving her good protection during fights from people attempting to stab her and the like. The clothing itself was pretty simple, a halter top that ends right above her belly button, leggings and boots that go about halfway up her thigh. If she went digging, she could also find the jacket, but that was probably lost in the abyss of the overflowing laundry hamper she shoved in the corner.

She turned and sat down on the edge of her bed, pulling out her homework from her backpack. There was time to kill, so she figured she might aswell attempt to do some homework.

Tonight she had French and math to do. With a sigh, she pushed the french to the side and got started on the math, though she'd really rather be doing the latter. But her tutor would have her hide if she neglected to do anymore math homework, and the french she could do quickly. The only classes she did well in were her languages, Spanish and French. Partially because she tried her hardest in them, seeing how in her mind they were really the only things that would be an active benefit for her. The other was she had some previous knowledge of them, during her bouncing around period, she picked up some basic knowledge of a handful of languages, as she found out her charmspeak wouldn't work if the person didn't understand her. Especially with french, a friend had taught quite a bit in that regard.

Jacelynn had managed to get through roughly half of the math when she heard the front door open and shut, followed immediately by some terse lecturing. Rogue must have finally come back. And from the sounds of it, it did not sound like she'd be leaving for awhile.

She closed the textbook, walked over to the open door and leaned against the doorframe as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. "And here I thought you'd left us forever."

Rogue scowled at her, but that wasn't anything new. "Oh, I'm considering it."

Jacelynn put a hand to her heart, clenching the fabric of her shirt.."Leave us? Oh how could you say such a thing? How would we survive without you? Where would you go that's better than this?"

"How 'bout the dumpster behind the school?" the other girl drawled.

She couldn't help but smile a little at that. "It would probably smell better."

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Understatement of the year."

"So what have you been up to? Was it truly important enough to justify Mystique's ire?"

"Oh, you know, makin blueboy disappear with a gizmo, having to save todd from gettin beat up by the X-men, and almost getting pulled into a stupid fight for no real reason." the southerner spat out, placing her hands on her hips. "So you know, the usual."

"Sounds like you've got a story." Which might explain why we got accused of kidnapping Kurt earlier that day Jacelynn mused. "Care to tell it?"

"No. It's weird and I don't even quite understand it myself. Besides,it doesn't matter to you so I don't need to." She huffed. "I'll be in my room if you want me." With that, Rogue walked down the hallway and disappeared into her room.

Jacelynn tossed her hands in the air. " If you phrase it like that now I have to know!" Only silence followed that remark, and with a defeated huff, she returned to the dreadful math.


	6. Chapter 6

It had been exactly one hour and thirty seven minutes since Mystique said she and Rogue would be back.

About ten minutes after that original time Jacelynn found herself in the living room, curled up on the armchair and staring at the door. Waiting.

Every passing minute she grew more anxious. What was the holdup? Mystique was nearly always back exactly when she said she would be. What's different about today?

The last time Mystique was late Jacelynn spent the night on the living room couch of the small apartment they were using (the actual owner was "elsewhere" as Mystique put it). That time there was a slight hitch in the plan that took some time sorting out. But she came back fine, just tired.

Jacelynn can't stop herself from envisioning the other times when it was later in the day and people she cared for weren't home when they said they would be.

When her parents didn't show up on time…

She shook her head. No, it's not like that. Mystique is a powerful mutant and she can handle herself

So were they, a little voice in the back of her head chimed in.

 _None of that matters_ , she tried to reassure herself. _I'm not even worried, because everything is fine. In fact, I can get out of this chair anytime I feel like it._

Jacelynn did not move from the chair.

The next time she moved is when the door is thrown open, and the lights turned on. With some struggle, Jacelynn opened her heavy eyelids as best she could, relief washing over her as she saw the familiar figure of her mentor, closing the front door with quite a bit of force.

"Ungrateful brat." she heard the woman hiss to herself. "All it took was one boy and she forgets everything I've done for her." she stopped once her gaze met the tired younger teens. "Jacelynn," she began, her tone became more exhausted than angry. "Must you do this every time?"

The teen gave gave a shrug, slowly pushing herself into a sitting position. "You said you'd be back hours ago and then you weren't. Are you ok?"

Mystique sighed, and ran a hand through her hair. "Yes, I'm fine. Of course I'm fine. I'm not going to just disappear without good reason, there's a lot at stake here."

"What would be a good reason? How do I know you won't just up and leave?" she questions, giving up the battle on switching positions and letting her head fall back to the soft padding of the side of the chair, curling up.

"I'm not going anywhere. Besides, if I were, I'd at least let you know. I won't-" Mystique straightened up, seemingly realised what she's saying "And in any case, your powers are valuable and you haven't yet outlived your usefulness. And with that, returned to her normal behaviour.

Jacelynn smiled softly at the uncharacteristic caring tone that had appeared for a brief second, eyes closing. "Whatever you say Mystique. Whatever you say." With that, she was sleeping once again.

That next morning, Jacelynn awoke only a few minutes after dawn. She sat up and stretched, the blanket which had been strategically placed to cover most of her face falling onto the floor.

Had she fallen asleep with a blanket on? She couldn't remember.

Rogue, on the other hand, did not end up coming back. During her brief stay at the brotherhood Jacelynn's feelings had become mostly impartial- she had a decent enough humour but in general took things a little too seriously. However finding out she left for the Xmen, and doing so without so much of a goodbye? That shifted her opinion of the teen to a solid dislike. The first day or two it was strange, but they got over the decrease in numbers swiftly, and got on with their lives without so much of a thought towards her.

"Todd!" Lance hollered, shifting from where he had been previously leaning against the wall.

"It ain't my fault! You people forgot to tell me!" he yelled back, followed by some slamming and crashing coming from what could only be his room as he scrambled around it.

"We reminded you three times last night!" Jacelynn chimed in, adjusting her duffel bag strap.

"Well ya really should have made sure I was payin' attention!"

Pietro rolled his eyes. "I say we just leave him. In fact, why don't we just cut and run and spend the week at a resort instead. That sounds much better then going to some dumb survival camp."

"If you feel like pissing off Mystique, then be my guest. But the rest of us aren't going to take that risk." replied Lance.

"But she's not here right now! She'd never know!"

"Uh, but what if she comes back?"

"Then she'd be here with no idea and we'd be off at a resort living the highlife. It's a perfect plan!"

Jacelynn scoffed. "It's Mystique- I'm pretty sure she knows where we are going before we do. "

At this point in time Todd leaps down the stairs, his bag still half open, landing very ungracefully in front of them.

"Think I got everything."

"You better, because we aren't going to turn back, at this point we are going to be lucky if we actually get to the bus on time." comments Lance, already heading out the door.

Jacelynn sighed, and reluctantly followed. "Literal hell on earth camp, here we come."

She felt someone lightly hit her leg with their foot and looked up slightly irritated from her book.

Naturally, of course, it was Pietro who had claimed both seats across the aisle from where she and Lance were sitting for himself.

"What are you reading?" he questions.

"Oh- Shakespeare. Midsummer's Nights Dream."

"You? Read Shakespeare?"

Jacelynn shrugged. "I like drama, I like plays, I like reading about characters that manage to be bigger assholes than me. Shakespeare is kind of perfect for me." She hadn't really gotten into it until one of his plays was required reading over the summer, and was bored enough to give

it a shot.

"I'll give you that- everyone in that play is a really shitty person."

She arches an eyebrow."And you know this how?"

"Because I've read it. Duh."

Now it was her turn to be surprised. " You've read this?"

"Well yeah, for one they make you read it in grade nine. And when you do everything as fast as I do, you start looking for ways to fill up time. They're not that bad, could do without all the fancyness of the words though."

"I mean, it was written like 400 years ago, everything was probably a lot fancier back then. Plus it sounds more elegant."

"I mean sure, but it was pain in the ass trying to write an essay for it at that point when I didn't understand half of it."

She closed her book, and reclined in her seat. " Wow, are you telling me there was a point where you actually cared about your grades?"

"You say that like I don't get better grades than you without even trying."

"Yeah, and I happen to sit next to you in science, so I know for a fact that's not true."

"I aced the last science test without even trying."

"Oh sure. What's our teacher's name?"

He went quiet, a puzzled look coming across his face. She couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, I'm sorry if it's hard to believe you're doing well when you honest to god don't know our teacher's name."

"Oh whatever. Not like you care about school either."

"I care!"

He gave her a knowing look.

"Well I care like… half the time. For things like English and French and Gym. "

"Caring half the time isn't going to let you graduate."

"Certainly better then not caring at all. And besides, I'll just tell them they're going to let me graduate. Problem solved."

"Your charmspeak or whatever is one hell of a get out of jail free card. I could of used you when Daniels landed me in jail." Pietro's expression darkened, glowering at the backside of said nemesis's head.

Jacelynn rolled her eyes. "Can you go one conversation without mentioning exactly how much you despise him?"

"Yeah I can. And I have. If you want to go after someone on that I'd talk to Lance, who hasn't stopped brooding since they got on the bus."

"Of course he is. He's contractually obligated to whenever Summers is within 20 feet of him." she laughed.

"I do not." responded Lance, speaking up for the first time since they sat down in their bus seats.

"Lance, you're great and all, but yes you do. Either that or you have the worst case of resting bitch face I've ever seen." Jacelynn replied.

"I vote for both." Pietro commented.

Lance turned to face them, land looked like he was about to say something before Pietro cut him off. " I bet he's going to scowl at us and call us assholes"

"Or make a bad rock pun." She added on.

The other teen rolled his eyes, and tried to look annoyed, however the smile forming gave him away.. "You two are the worst."

Pietro and Jacelynn shared a mischievous smile. "Only when it comes to you Lance." She laughed, and with that returned to her book.

She saw the look on the guys faces when Sergeant whatever proclaimed Scott as their group leader and she knew exactly what she was in for. All her hopes of just completing this week uneventfully and returning her nice, warm bed slipped down the drain.

"And this is supposed to be tied to survival… how?" Jacelynn questioned, her hand over her eyes blocking the bright sunlight as she stared at the second task of the day. The first was a simple kilometre run, and as expected Pietro "won" with ease. Something he had continued to rub everyone's faces-especially Evan's- even though they had tried telling him multiple times that it was not, in fact, a competition. That was something you could make an argument for being "essential".

But this? "This is just an obstacle course on steroids"

"I think it's just to build muscle or something." Todd commented from where he was sitting on the grass watching everything go down.

"But there are ways to build muscle that are more practical then this! I mean, its climbing a rope, then down a zipline and then rowing a raft across a lake then running like three feet. There is no point!" She shook her head, the ponytail she tied her hair into swinging behind her back. Seeing as this was a survival camp, she had opted for a more casual style, namely a green t-shirt and shorts.

"Practical or not it's fun to watch." replied Pietro- who then promptly started snickering after Fred snapped his rope and tumbled to the ground. Lance on the other hand seemed to be fairing fine, one of the first to make it up the entire length of the rope and down the zipline. The only person ahead of him was Summers.

"This is going to end badly. I can already see it."

"What do you mean? You don't think Lance is going to win/" Todd asked, and got up from the ground.

"Oh no, Lance has a good shot at winning, but he is up against Scott. There isn't a way powers aren't- She couldn't even finish her sentence before the X-geek took a very unnatural looking tumble into the lake. "Sometimes I scare myself with how well I know you people."

Todd leaped into the air, getting more then a few feet off the ground without even trying. "He's gonna win! C'mon Lance! Show those losers up!"

Lance made it a whopping distance of halfway across the small lake before a "mysterious" and "strange" red beam sends him toppling out of the raft and into the water.

"Summers has some nerve doing that." scowled Pietro.

"You gotta be kidding me!" shouted Todd.

"Now that was real subtle." Jacelynn shook her head. "He's dumber then I thought."

With no one else anywhere close to the finish life, Summers passed through the finish line with ease. He had barely passed through when his friends obnoxious cheering got louder and she could see her friends walking towards them. She hesitated for a second. Was this really worth getting into a fight over? Probably not. Was getting into a fight going to be the only fun thing she got to do this whole week? Definitely.

And with that she quickly caught up to her friends.

"That loser Scott should have lost and you know it." Fred stopped in front of the other teens, easily towering over them all.

"Yeah," Pietro moved forward. "Just because he slipped and took a bath the guy went ballistic!"

"Slipped? More like avalanched." retorted Smurf, who was not actually blue at that moment, however Jacelynn could not remember his name.

"He stole that first place ribbon!' chimed in Todd.

"He did not!' said Kitty.

"Oh sure, hyper power laser beams just randomly occur in wilderness." Jacelynn rolled her eyes, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh yeah? If you want that ribbon so bad I'll pin it to your face!" Rogue just about snarled that at her, and quite possibly something else under her breath that she couldn't quite hear as everyone started yelling at each other.

"You can try, if you want your hand broken." Jacelynn gave her a sickly sweet smile.

"I'd watch your mouth before-"

A whistle screeches through the air, effectively halting all arguing near instantly. Sergeant Perma-Scowl gave them all scathing look felt even underneath his sunglasses.

Oh, they were in so much shit.

The counting had become background noise as Jacelynn sat at the end of the line of teenagers doing pushups, glaring at the immediate distance.

Naturally the instant pushups as form of punishment got mentioned she had immediately decided that she'd pass on doing that.

However when she went up to Sergeant UglyShades and "suggested" that she not do any of this, he resisted. No, not resisted. He told her no.

She knew she wasn't at the point with her powers where everyone would just follow without hesitation, sometimes there was resistance, if it wasn't in the person's first language then they just wouldn't work. A couple times people broke out with sheer willpower, But she had yet to have meet someone with enough sheer willpower to deny her.

He wasn't even a mutant. He was just a regular guy.

Frankly, it pissed her off.

Of course she was able to work him down, at the cost of having to do 20 of 60 proposed pushups. But that didn't make it sting any less. Her powers failed. She failed.

Jacelynn managed to push back her internal brooding enough to pick up on the others finishing up, and in sync with the others stood up so Sergeant Asshat could menacingly pace in front of them for some sort of intimidation tactic.

He began some sort of speech about loudmouths and tough guys that she wasn't really paying attention to until he got to the bit about "proving how tough you are". Which apparently involves their respective teams bringing back a photo of them and a flag brought back from where he planted it. "It" being something Sergeant Toughguy called "Mount Humiliation" and pointed behind him.

Jacelynn's heart stopped beating.

Mount Humiliation was actually a big ass mountain.

She followed her friends numbly as they went to prepare. "Sergeant Teenkiller is insane. Absolutely fucking insane."

"I feel like this is illegal or something man. We gotta tell someone." Todd shook his head.

"Tell who?" Pietro spread his arms out, gesturing around him. "Look where we are Todd. The middle of fucking nowhere. And there's one authority person, and he's the one sending us on this crazy quest."

Lance walk up behind them. "Not like we have any choice on this so we might as well win this. It'll be easy, even without our powers."

Pietro and Jacelynn share a look, something bordering on the edge of panic.

"What do you mean, even without our powers?" Pietro questions.

"Scott tried to tell me that the only way we could beat them is if we cheat and use our powers-

"Lance you didn't." She buried her face in her hands, knowing full well where this was going."

"So I said that he's wrong as usual. So we decided that no one is going to use their powers for this."

Jacelynn groaned."Lance no!" She pulled her hands away from her face. "You've done and killed us all. How are we going to do this?"

"We'll figure something out, it's just a mountain. What's the worse that can happen?" Lance shrugged, and headed off towards the supply shed.

"Famous last words if I ever heard them." Piretro muttered to her, folding his arms together.

"You're telling me." she sighed, and ran a hand through her dark brown hair. "How much you want to bet one or more of are going to nearly get killed?"

He gave her a dry smile. "Have you met us 'Lynn? We are all going to have nearly died twice by noon."

"Oh definitely. And for the love of god don't call me 'Lynn. "

She had to admit Lance's idea of tying ropes connecting them to Fred and having him just scale the side of the mountain was smart. Albeit slightly harrowing and more than a little uncomfortable.

She held her side with one hand as she untangled herself from the rope from where she'd gotten some nasty scrapes from the jagged mountain side as Fred pulled them up over the ledge.

The three walked over to Fred, who was carefully watching an entrance to what to be-

"An abandoned mine?" Lance questioned.

"Toad's checking for a shortcut."

Jacelynn's heartbeat started racing, and she took a small step back. "Oh fuck no. You aren't getting me in there." She couldn't tear her eyes away from the dark, small, abandoned underground cave. It was everything she hated combined into one claustrophobia inducing horror.

Lance gave her a questioning look. "It's just a cave."

"Yeah, and I'm not going through with this."

"Don't you want to win?

"I don't care about this stupid flag enough to- to have to go in there!"

Lance looked like he was going to argue with her and she was not above charmspeaking her way out of this situation when Pietro cut in.

"Just let her head up the normal way, she's obviously not going to do this and we can just meet up at the top."

Lance didn't look completely convinced but he dropped the subject. Jacelynn flashed the speedster a grateful smile and started up the path.

She figured she was making good time, and expected to get to the top in a couple more minutes. Did they actually win something without explicitly cheating for once? This might be a first.

Those naive hopes came crashing right back down when she felt the ground begin trembling beneath her feet, managing to catch herself before she fell on her face. She groaned. "Those idiots didn't actually do it, did they?" The second the ground stopped shaking she was charging back down the path to an exit of the mine shaft.

"Do none of you have brains?" she called down, and sure enough there was an answer.

"Jacelynn! You gotta help us man!" Todd's voice called up.

"How?" She dropped onto the ground. " Not like I can charmspeak the rocks into moving off of you."

"You have to do something, 'Lynn. I'm too awesome to die down here!" said Pietro.

"I am."

"You're sitting on the ground. How is that doing something?"

"Im sitting on the only real path up to the flag, because sooner or later the Xgeeks are going to walk up here and they are going to help you."

"Are you sure they'll help, Jacelynn?" questioned Lance. " They kind of hate us."

"Well obviously, but they aren't going to leave you to die. Besides, on the off chance they are hesitant I'll just force them to. Cuz I'm not sure about you but I don't feel like having my friends die in an abandoned mine tunnel."

"Aw, Lynn, I didn't know you cared." Pietro called.

"Yeah? And call me 'Lynn one more time and I'll have them leave you there."

"You wouldn't!"

She grinned down at him. "Try me."

Jacelynn waved the Xmen over when they got to their location and (thankfully) decided to help of their own accord. Once everyone was out it looked like it was about to dissolve back to their normal behaviours, with Pietro and Smurf trying to pull the flag away from each other, when things took a turn for the unexpected.

That unexpected turn being a huge black hyper jet appearing over the mountain edge and a womans voice informing them that both Professor X and Mystique were in danger and before she knew it they were being whisked away on an incredibly high tech aircraft.

From what the lady who's name is apparently Storm debriefed them with told them of Juggernaut, this was obviously going to be a fight. So everyone divided and changed into whatever their fighting gear happened to be.

Jacelynn ended up taking the longest to finish. Her gear wasn't what was causing trouble, it was pretty simple in all honesty. A high neck, black halter top that ended just above her abdomen, black leggings with a streak of purple running down the side, tall boots and black gauntlets for an extra edge in hand to hand combat.

No, the problem was with her glamour.

She hadn't been on a mission for a little while now, as Mystique was obviously in one of her "planning something big so I'm going to deal with this myself for now" phases. And normally Mystique would give her someone to "become". When she didn't, she normally opted for Damien, because his glamour was so familiar to her, and perhaps because she felt stronger and emotionless as him. But that wasn't an option. For one, it would majorly freak out everyone if she walked out as an intimidating adult. And secondly, while the combat oriented, form fitting clothes worked and looked great on her, they would decidedly look less great on Damien.

Besides, as Damien she acted differently, made more rash and impulsive decisions. It was just too risky.

But she had to do something. She couldn't do her normal glamour because it would be dumb, and her actual appearance was completely out of the question. So she stared into the small mirror of the bathroom for a minute or two, trying to think for what she could do. Eventually, she came to something.

Jacelynn looked at herself in the mirror and concentrated, watching as the desired changes took place. Her eyes turn an almost unsettlingly dark black, and her hair goes from brown to a rich dark purple, the closest thing to an homage to her original appearance she would let herself get.

Another glance over in the mirror, and she decided that this could actually work. On that note, she returned to the others.

Lance raised his eyebrows. "What's with the eyes?"

She shrugged. "Well for one I thought they were cool, and for a second it eliminates any need for a mask. Why?"

"More creepy than anything if you ask me."

"Good thing I wasn't then." She laughed, and he rolled his eyes at her.

"Creepy eyes aside, what are we going to call you?"

"Oh, you mean as in codename? Uh…" She went silent, trying to think of something. After all, codenames are important. It's what everyone was going to know her by. After a few minutes she settled on something she quite liked. "Glamour. In reference to my powers and stuff."

"Alright, Glamour it is."

Jacelynn wasn't quite sure what exactly she expected a Juggernaut to look like, but she had to admit the sheer height of this guy took her aback for a second. Though she got over it quickly, because after all, this was a fight they were in.

"Freeze Juggernaut, you can't move a muscle. " She threw her power at him, and was successful for just long enough for Quicksilver to quickly undo one of the fasts to his helmet before Juggernaut pulled himself out of her hold, charging at her.

Thinking fast she leaped out of the way, landing close to the ground a few feet away.

The rest of the fight, relatively speaking was pretty easy, with the combined effort and powers of all the mutants in the room. Once they managed to get his helmet off Xavier did the rest of the work for them,and just like that they were leaving.

As they reached the gates Todd dared to ask Mystique why she was with Xavier in the first place, and in her typical fashion she snapped at him, turned into a Raven and left them to find a way home by themselves.

Looking back at the institute, Jacelynn couldn't help but feel that with the way Mystique was acting, there was something she wanted in that mansion, not her boss. Something probably heavily guarded.

This definitely wasn't going to be the last time they passed through the gates of the Xmen headquarters.


	7. Chapter 7

Things seemed to calm down some the next few days.

No superpowered mutants came and attempted to kill one or more of their respected mentors. Fights between the two teams seemed to be nonexistent, if you didn't count Lance elbowing Scott in the hallway, if only for a few days. And then Friday rolled around.

"God, that science final kicked my ass." Jacelynn sighed, heading into the hallway, Pietro walking next to her. "And I still have two more."

"You probably did fine 'Lynn." she rolled her eyes at the sound of the nickname. "Not as good as I did of course, but good."

Another eye roll.

"I doubt you can even spell mitochondria Pietro."

"And I doubt that you even know what that is, your just trying to make yourself sound smarter." He retorts.

A short laugh escapes her, but just before she could fire back another voice joins the conversation.

"You know you guys have this exact same argument almost everyday, right?" sighs Lance, shutting his locker and joining them.

"It's not even an argument anymore, I just find his answers funny." Pietro is the one that scoffs this time but Lance beats him to the punch.

"Don't even start Pietro. I have a massive migraine and I will bring the roof down on all of us if you make it worse."

"Right, just like when you destroyed the roof when a certain freshman didn't want to get expelled for changing her grades." Jacelynn comments.

"Come on, you can't fault him for that. Almost killing the girl isone of the best ways of getting a girl to go out with you." the speedster adds on, and Jacelynn presses her hand over her mouth in an effort to silence her sputtering laughter. Lance scowls at the two of them.

"Are you done yet?"

"Ok, ok. Sorry."

The trio make their way to the cafe, which is significantly more quiet than usual. What students that were in the room were either bent over textbooks or looking like they might possibly keel over from exhaustion.

Todd and Fred had already beat the trio to the table, the latter already chowing down on the massive amount of food he'd somehow managed to pile onto his tray. He had a real talent at that, considering the size of his lunches were probably enough to feed a small army of children.

"Where have you guys been?" questions Todd as they sit down.

"In class, doing finals. Where else would we be? The moon?" commented Jacelynn as she fished in her jacket pocket for today's lunch (one whole entire apple.)

"Last of my finals are monday. If they weren't happening there no way I'd be going." Todd adds on.

"Most of mine were today. And I did amazingly on all of them, guaranteed." said Pietro, who had grabbed a tray of food during the couple seconds of conversation and rejoined them.

"I had some too. I think I did ok. I didn't fail at least." said Fred.

"Honestly that's the best thing to hope for with these things. I'm just going to be happy if I graduate." she couldn't help but think of the math final she had this afternoon, and how her grade in that class hung in the balance. Her tutor seemed confident in her, however he also was annoyingly eternally optomistic so she did not put too much weight into his words.

"I'm done for the day, and thank god for that. My head is probably going to explode."

"You not bring your advil?" questions Jacelynn.

"Ran out last week and forgot to get more. If I didn't have to get you lot home I'd be out of here."

"You could always skip. You said yourself that you don't have anymore finals." Pietro pointed his fork at Lance as he speaks.

He shrugs." I don't know, I'm trying to end the year on a high note. Make it look like I actually give a shit about my education."

Jacelynn hummed. "I think if you want to give off that kind of impression you'd have to lose the gloves, the ripped jeans, the attitude…." He gave her a look. "I'm just trying to be are of the opinion delinquents can't be smart."

" And if you want to ever give an impression of being a nice person I suggest losing the sass. And never talking again. Ever." he fired back, the humour evident in his voice. She raised her hands in the air, smiling.

"Goddamn Lance, tell me how you really feel." she laughed.

"Personally I think he's wrong 'Lynn. Never stop talking, you say some of the dumbest stuff, it's quite funny."

"Pietro I swear to god if you call me 'Lynn one more time I will smack you."

"See! Just like that!"

Sparring was quite possibly one of her favourite parts of the day. As of that point in time Mystique had become increasingly busy, preparing for something. So the grueling training sessions that Mystique had once put them through day after day had become… sparse. Increasingly so. So suddenly there is a giant amount of time that was just there. A space to fill. She could do homework she supposed, but that wasn't exactly a fun way to use time. Then one day Lance jokingly asked to fight her, which turned into an actual practice sparring match. From there almost everyday after school they practiced.

"What do you think is going on?" Lance asks that afternoon after they finish up, after taking a drink from a water bottle. Jacelynn shrugged, leaning against the side of the old house.

"Something. Definitely big. No idea what it is though."

"Really? She hasn't told you anything." She shook her head in response.

"Of course not. It's Mystique, she's very much a fan of the whole shrouded in mystery thing. Besides, even if she wanted to I don't think it's hers to tell." Lance raised his eyebrow at that.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean I dont think this thing is hers. I think her boss is the mastermind of it all. Everyone's got one, right? Plus this whole thing, whatever this thing is, it feels too big for one person alone. Not only that, but she spends her days moonlighting as a highschool principal, she doesn't have time to be an evil mastermind."

"You've put some thought into this."

She shrugged at that. "You start questioning things after working under a person for so long. That and I've never taken well to not being in the know."

"Honestly I don't care what we do as long as she pays the bills and I get to keep bashing heads."

She rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised."

"What about you? What do you get out of all of this?"

She paused then, taking a moment to think. "Honestly for me it.. Something. A purpose, and a far better one then robbing stores for money to survive. That and I enjoy the missions. Thrill of danger and stuff."

"That last part I could've told you myself 'Lynn, just from the way you describe old missions."

"Come on Lance, not you too!"

"What? What did I do?"

"Call me 'Lynn! I fucking hate that name!"

"You do?"

"Yes and I say so constantly. Don't you hear that?" He shakes his head and she lets out a sigh. "Wow, thanks."

"I'm sorry, its just that you let Pietro call you it all the time."

"Oh I let him know, it's just he's Pietro and doesn't give a rats ass."

As if summoned by the sound of his name a gust came rushing at them out of nowhere. It stopped just as suddenly as it came-, that gust being none other then the speedster they were just talking about.

"Gear up guys, we've got a job to do."

"What does Mystique want us to do now?" asks Lance.

"Not Mystique. These orders are higher up then her." At that Lance and Jacelynn shared a glance.

"You going to elaborate?" questions Jacelynn.

"Yeah, I'll explain to everyone. But we need to go. Now."

She became more unsure of their orders every second during the car ride to the mall construction site. Didn't like messing with Mystiques meeting or whatever it was she was doing. Jacelynn had been on the receiving end of Mystiques wrath before, and wasn't particularly keen to see it again anytime soon. It felt wrong, above all. Going behind her back, when she had done so much for her when she probably didn't have to. But Jacelynn wasn't stupid enough to try and say anything, or attempt to not go through with it. No, far too many unknowns for her liking.

So she schooled her features into one of disinterest as the five of them appeared from the shadows and surrounded poor Nightcrawler.

She didn't take all those drama classes for nothing.

Mystique immediately tells them to leave, and looks genuinely surprised for a second when Pietro tells her that they received "higher orders", before it morphs into a look of collected anger that she tended to default to. Her gaze sweeps across them all, even Toads who, after a lapse of judgement is swinging from the hook of a crane. It works out for them, as him slamming into the metal frame Nightcrawler was perching on, sending him to the ground. Jacelynn, who was keeping the powerful mutant well in her sightline saw another break of character- was that.. Concern? Open concern? For someone other than Mystique herself? This might be a first, she couldn't help but think as she felt a twinge of jealousy as she followed the others to where Kurt landed, currently unconscious.

"That was easy." commented Pietro.

"Wrong." Interjects a familiar voice, and they turn to see the Xmen a few feet away from them. "It just got hard." Well, if this wasn't interesting before it certainly was now. Todd leaped down from the hook, landing on all fours.

"Get them!" And with that they launched into battle.

Jacelynn veers to the side, the first person she notices being Jean making a move for the unconscious body of Kurt. Having picked a target, she runs in an arc, positioning herself behind Jean. Just before she barrells straight into the telepath she drops to the ground and sweeps her leg into the other teens, knocking the red heads legs out from under her. Jacelynn stood up, and was about to drop her elbow into the side of Jeans head before she could react but was stopped by a red laser hitting her square in the back, throwing her forward and sending her into the dirt.

Ow.

It took a few minutes for her to pull herself up from the ground, muscles groaning in protest, the xmen long gone.

And so was Mystique.

She sighed, putting a hand on her back where she was injured and immediately wincing. Oh yeah, that was going to leave a mark. Shaking off the pain she started going around to her teammates, starting off by turning off the concrete blender that poor Fred was rotating in. He pushed himself out, muttering about stupid Xmen to himself before walking over to Toad.

Next person she went to was Pietro, who was currently lying in a mound of sand, however he was conscious, which she took as a good sign.

"You ok? Do you need help getting up?" she asked.

"Nah, I'm fine. I'll be up in a minute." he said, waving her off. She shrugged and moved on to Lance who was not as lucky as Pietro. She squatted down and gently shook his shoulder.

"Lance? Lance you need to wake up." she said, though to no avail. She closed her eyes for a second and decided to try a different method. Opening them again she spoke, this time throwing her power behind the words. "Lance, wake up. Now."

Right on queue he shifted, eyes opening and he sat up. "Ugh, what happened?"

"We lost. Badly. And now Mystique is pissed off at us most likely. Now come on, we need to get I'm driving." He stiffened and immediately started protesting.

"What? Absolutely not. That is my jeep and the only person who drives it is me. You-"

She put a hand up. "Lance you cannot expect me to let you drive. You just got knocked out by a crazy mutant and I had to use charmspeak to get you up. I'm driving." he scowled but otherwise didn't try to protest again.

Jacelynn stood up and saw similar irritated looks on the others face.

This was going to be a rough night.

 **Sorry for the short chapter everyone! Don't get too worried though, the following chapters are going to get longer as we are approaching the season one finale. And oh, do I have plans. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you thought in the reviews- I reply to every single one I get!**


	8. Chapter 8

Jacelynn awoke the next morning with the sun streaming through her window, the digital clock on her nightstand saying that it was just past 9:00. She sat up, wondering if she overslept and was late for school.

Wait, no. It was Saturday. Right.

She sighed, remembering last nights events. She knew in her gut that it was a bad idea. Yet she went through with it anyway. Why?

Because it would have been worse not too, obviously. Higher orders, wasn't that what Pietro had said? She frowned, swinging her legs over the side of the bed, going through her memory. Trying to remember if any person she had seen Mystique talked to would possibly be someone the woman would take orders from. It's not like she hadn't pieced together the fact Mystique was not at the top of the pyramid but the fact that Pietro knew who they were? That was odd. She knew this was going to bug her until she found out but that wasn't going to be anytime soon, Jacelynn knew that much.

After last night? Mystique wouldn't be coming within a twenty-mile radius of the boarding house.

She threw on her normal glamour, plucked a book from her shelf and made her way downstairs. No one else was up yet, or at least no one was downstairs. She put on a pot of coffee for herself before she crossed into the living room, dropped into a chair and started to read.

Jacelynn didn't look up from her book again until she got nudged in the shoulder sometime later and looked up to see Lance holding out a cup of coffee.

"Figured you forgot to actually make a cup after you put it on."

She smiled, gladly taking the cup from him. "Thanks."

"No problem"

He sat down on the coach, as she set her book on the table beside her. " Are the others still asleep?" she questions

" Todd is out back catching breakfast, but I don't know about the other two. I'm assuming Freddy is awake though, we would be able to hear him if wasn't."

She smiled a bit at that. "That's true."

They fall silent for a minute or two before Lance said. " Hey, Jacelynn. You know Mystique  
better than anyone right?"

" I know her just about as well as anyone can. She's not exactly the most talkative person. Why do you ask?"

"You think she's coming back? Here, I mean."

Jacelynn went quiet for a minute, thinking. " I think she will. Eventually. Not today or tomorrow or the next day but at some point. She's pissed, definitely, and needs some time to cool off. But she can't flake on her boss like that, especially if they are as powerful as you'd have to be to boss Mystique around."

"Good to know."

"I've got a question for you now."

"Shoot."

"You have any idea who the real boss person is?"

"Me? No. That's probably a question for Pietro honestly."

"It's Pietro."She scoffed." He's just going to think him knowing this information makes him officially better than me and tell me absolutely nothing. No thanks."

"Aren't you guys friends?"

"Yeah, course we are. I'm friends with all of you. We kind of have to be, we all live together. But that's beside the point because even with we are friends Pietro is still going to be Pietro."

"... I mean you have a point."

"Thank you."

"Even if you don't ask though, we are going to find out eventually. We do sort of work for them."

"If we do meet them I hope they don't want us to do anything. I'd like to enjoy my summer in peace."

" I thought you were going to be upset about summer since your only hobby of following useless drama wouldn't be something you could do anymore." She stuck her tongue out at him, and he raised his hands in defence, smiling at her. "I'm not wrong though, am I?"

"Oh, fuck off Lance."

A few hours pass, and after that conversation with Lance, the next time she looks up from her book she's being asked to go grocery shopping with Todd and Lance. She agreed, figuring it was a good excuse to go and stretch her legs. Which was why she was now staring down a rather large selection of tomato sauces.

"I didn't think it came in so many different kinds yo," commented Todd.

Jacelynn shrugged. "Different kinds for different uses I suppose. Did Lance write down a brand or anything?"

Todd shook his head. "Just tomato sauce."

She sighed. "Could it kill him to be specific for once?"

'What? Are our grocery shopping skills not good enough for you?"

"No, more like I expect you guys to be able to do very simple life tasks decently," she commented, grabbing a jar that was decently priced and handed it to her roommate.

"That's on you dawg, we never said we could do that shit."

She laughed at that. "Touche. What's next on our part of the list?"

"Uhh, bread."

She nodded and started walking out of the aisle and over to the bakery section when two things happened. The first being she noticed two guys from the Bayville football team holding pop and chip bags walking the opposite way as them. The second was Todd just about launching himself around the corner of the aisle and onto the floor before scrambling up and out of her sight.

She quickly walked after her him, completely bewildered and slightly concerned. "Todd?" she questioned, looking down at the white tiled floor where he had dove under a table of boxed cookies, red basket just poking out from underneath.

"Not so loud!" he hissed before he eyed the space just beyond the aisle corner. "Are they gone?"

"Who? The football guys?" He nodded. "Coast is clear." Todd sighed in relief and stood up, picking up the basket. "So.. you going to explain what that was about?"

"It's nothing man, I promise."

"Uh, right. Didn't exactly look like nothing. "

"Look, I tried to pickpocket them a while back and that didn't go so well. They have been givin' me some trouble ever since n' said next time they see me they were gonna break every bone in my body, and I don't know 'bout you but I like my bones unbroken thank you very much."

"If you want I can go over and have a word with then" she replied, putting air quotes around the word.

"Ha. No, I'm okay Jacelynn. I can take care of things myself."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Thanks for the offer though. I 'ppreciate it."

She shrugged. "Anything for a friend. Now come on, we need to get that bread."

Jacelynn did agree to not exchange any choice words with the two, however she did very discreetly trip one of them while she and Todd were waiting in line at the cash. And she saw Todd smile, so it was definitely worth it.

"All the groceries money can buy," she placed the two bags on the counter. "And a couple extra for good measure."

"Thanks, Jacelynn." Fred pulled out the jar of tomato sauce first and set it aside.

"What's the plan for tonight?"

"I'm making spaghetti." She lit up at that.

"Spaghetti? Oh, man, I used to make it all the time with my parents. Do you need any help?"

"Want to start the boiled water for me?" She nodded and began searching through the cupboards for a pot. "Hey, didn't you mention at one point you're Italian?"

She hummed. " On my dad's side. His parents came over from Italy in the twenties."

"Do you speak it?"

'Italian? I'm conversational-ish. Dad didn't start teaching me until I was about nine. Haven't had to use it in years though so I'm rusty." More like wouldn't use it, not that Fred needed to know that. She hadn't attempted it, not since she and Mason had their falling out. Not like she had met another speaker. Not like she could trust herself to utter a word without breaking the bottle she so carefully kept all those memories and emotions surrounding her past. Surrounding her family.

She needed a conversation change.

"You said you were apart of a travelling show when Mystique found you right? What was that like?"

"It was alright. I liked throwing trucks around and stuff and the people were nice, but being on the road all the time kinda sucked."

"I can barely survive a thirty-minute car trip, I doubt I could handle that sort of lifestyle." Thank god Lance owned a jeep. A nice, roofless, open air and non-claustrophobic jeep.

"It was crowded and busy but it was ok mostly. But after a while I just wanted to find a place and stay there, you know?"

Jacelynn nodded. "I feel that. It was a nice change when Mystique plopped us down in Bayville. Aside from having to enroll in school and all that."

"You two travelled a lot?"

"Yeah, we were all around the country in the span of a couple months. Occasionally out of country a handful of times too. And I did some moving of my own before that."

"You were in a travelling show too?"

She couldn't help but laugh a little at that. "No, nothing like that. More like…," she paused, trying to think of a good word. "I was roaming."

"Roaming?"

"Yeah. It's a better word then wandering because it sounds more mysterious I guess. More purposeful."

"I like it. It's a nice word."

"Thank you. I think it is pretty nice too."

The conversation falls for a minute or two before Fred asked. "How come you were roaming?"

"Sorry?"

"Like, did you have a purpose for roaming?"

She tensed up immediately, and took a second to score her face into a neutral expression, all the while racking her brain for an answer she could give out to that. She hated this, how one fucking question about her past made her freeze up like this. It was pathetic.

"I…," she started off, going through every word in her head twice before she said them, " have an uncanny ability to thoroughly piss people off. And occasionally I do it so well no amount of persuasive words can change it. So I had to leave."

"Oh."

She doesn't give him time to come up with any possible follow up questions. "The water is boiling now. We should be all set for spaghetti making step two."

"Uh, right. I'll grab the pasta."

Jacelynn skillfully managed to keep the rest of the conversation far, far away from where it had just been going.

It was much later in the evening, and Jacelynn found herself sitting on the step just outside the door. Looking at the sun setting, but not really watching. Her mind was elsewhere. Though even she wasn't exactly sure where her thoughts were taking her, they alternated between her past, to where Mystique was, to go over exactly where everything went wrong with their first mission for the real boss.

She was so deeply entrenched inside her own head she didn't notice the door open and close. She almost didn't notice Pietro sitting down next to her.

"Hey, you need something?" she questioned.

" Not really, I was just gonna ask if you planned on sitting on a watch for Mystique to come back again."

She scowled at him. " I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Oh sure you do. Got absolutely no clue, right?." She rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the not so distant horizon.

"Just to double check, you aren't actually related to Mystique right?"

Jacelynn blinked in confusion and turned to face him. " No, we aren't related. I-" her voice faltered for a second, trying to keep her words as vague as possible. " already have a legal guardian."

He nodded. "I figured, I'd probably have known but just wanted to make sure. You do have similar powers after all."

She shrugged. "That's fair. Still, just a coincidence. No relation as far as I'm aware." She goes silent for a minute before following that up with " And how would you have known, exactly?"

"My dad and Mystique work pretty closely together."

"Really?" Briefly, she went through every male colleague she'd seen Mystique working with, but came up with nothing. "Don't recall anyone who looked anything like you working with Mystique."

"Less work with and more she works for."

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Your dad is Mystiques boss?"

"The boss of basically every mutant who's not with Xavier roughly, Mystique included."

Now, this was something to snag her attention. "You're kidding?"

"Not at all."

"Aren't their hundreds of mutants out there?"

"Something like that, and most work for him directly or indirectly. He's persuasive when he wants to be, and when he's not it's either help or get out of the way. Course, you could be a minor inconvenience and that'd be enough reason for him to throw you to the curb." Pietro had a dark look in his eye, a scowl on his face. A sort of quiet anger surrounded him. Jacelynn was almost certain it was the stillest she'd ever seen him before.

"Not on good terms with him then?"

"Not at all. Don't think he notices though, or cares. I'm just another pawn in his game, you know? Like we all are." It isn't hard to detect the bitterness in his voice.

"It must be tough, working for him."

"Yeah well, you get used to it. Least he started paying attention when I developed powers."He scoffed and leaned back onto his hands. "Course, that's the way it is for us. Parents are dead or pieces of shit."

She hoped her flinch wasn't noticeable. "You can say that again. Everyone has a sob story, right?"

"What about your parents? Shitty or dead?"

It takes her a long moment to answer, mentally deciding what she should say while simultaneously cursing living with such socially inept people. She is watching the horizon  
"Dead. For a few years now."

"Ah. I'm sorry."

She shrugged, not letting herself move her gaze. Keeping herself as stoic as possible. "Thanks. It was all kind of sudden. I try not to linger on it." It felt so weird, talking about something she had fought so hard to keep at bay, even in her own head. Even now, she barely spoke two sentences and she could feel the floodgates opening in her mind. She squeezed the edge of the porch with her hands, her knuckles going white, trying to not lose grip on reality. This was not a rabbit hole she wanted to go down. The silence only pushes her farther in, she wracked her half focus brain for something, anything to switch the topic too.

"Do you want to talk about something else? You don't-"

"Yes. Please. " she got out, keeping back a sigh of relief, she didn't want to seem that pathetic.

"Alright… how about... What's your middle name?"

"I-What?"

"Your middle name. I don't think you've ever mentioned it before." She blinked a few times, confusion evident on her face. "It is not that hard of a question to answer 'Lynn."

She glared at him. "Let's start with the fact my first name is Jacelynn, not 'Lynn. And secondly, I know what you are asking me, I was just caught off guard. I mean, asking about someone's middle name is not in the top 20 icebreakers list, you know?"

" It's a reasonable question to ask 'Lynn." She glared at him again, but he just smirked at her, 'Besides, I think it's an excellent icebreaker because we are having a conversation about it right now, aren't we?"

He, unfortunately, had a point there. She huffed out a very unimpressed "I guess." Subconsciously her death grip on the ledge began to relax, the tension in her muscles evaporating. The thoughts lingered in the back of her head, she had a feeling she'd be seeing more of them when she was trying to get to sleep that night, but at that moment she was able to keep them at bay by focusing on the ridiculous conversation they were having.

"You know, you're getting real defensive over something pretty simple. "

"I am not I-"

"OH." He cut her off, a devilish grin spreading on his face. "I get it. Your middle name is something embarrassing, isn't it? Like Beatrice or something."

She put her hands up in a mock surrender and replies, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "You got me. My horrifying secret is my full name is actually Jacelynn Beatrice Dionnis."

"Are you gonna tell me what it actually is or am I just going to go down the list of horrible potential names?"

"Well, I've got a reputation as a very mysterious person to uphold," she tries to keep a straight face but starts to smile, "so I'm afraid that telling you is off the table."

Pietro looks as if he was about to fire off a witty retort when a new voice entered the conversation. "You kids are up a little late, aren't you?"

The two jump up, Jacelynn's instincts immediately pushing her into a stance ready to fight or bolt.

"Mystique?" her voice was quiet, the one word filled with confusion.

The woman herself walked over from where she had been standing in the shadows. "That was sloppy Jacelynn. You should have noticed I was there before I made myself known." The teen's gaze fell to the ground, running a hand through her long hair.

"Right. Sorry."

"Why are you back? We thought you would be gone for awhile," questioned Pietro.

The woman narrowed her eyes. "Because we are about to embark on the most important chapter of mutant history." In her dramatic fashion, she swept past the two of them and opened the door before pausing. "I suggest getting some sleep. Starting tomorrow, you'll be working harder than you've ever had to in your life." And with that she went inside, shutting the door behind her.

The teens shared a look.

"Do you have any idea what that was about?" Pietro asked her.

She shook her head. "No, but apparently we will be finding out soon. "

 **Sorry about the unexpected filler chapter but I felt it was needed before things start getting crazy. Hope you enjoyed anyhow. If you have any suggestions for anything leave a review and I'll try to fit it in! I reply to every review I get and it keeps me motivated. Hopefully I will have the next chapter out before the end of August!**


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